
Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



BIBLICAL NATURE STUDIES 



BIBLICAL 
NATURE STUDIES 



BY 



REV. ANDREW W. ARCHIBALD, D.D. 

v 

Author of 

"The Bible Verified," "The Trend of the 
Centuries," "The Easter Hope" 



"But looks through nature up to nature's God." — Pope. 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



#\<\ 



\p 







COPYRIGHT 1915 

By ANDREW W. ARCHIBALD 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 



SEP -I 1915 

©CI.A411285 



K" CP^ 






^ 



DEDICATED 

BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS GRANDSON 

KENNETH WARREN ARCHIBALD 

AND ALSO 

TO THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

WHICH HE HAS SERVED FOR 

ANY CONTINUOUS TIME 



NATURE STUDIES 

PREFACE 

In the following pages, nature, which ' ' speaks 
a various language," is studied in earth and 
sea and sky, from tree to mountain, from snow- 
flake to desert mirage, from mirror lake to 
human profile of rock, from denizen of the deep 
to bird of the air, from leaf to star. Their 
illuminating lessons are certainly capable of 
being conveyed in a suggestive, interesting and 
impressive manner, though the writer may not 
have succeeded in attaining unto such an ideal 
portrayal. Taking his previous volumes, ' i The 
Bible Verified, ' ' ' ' The Trend of the Centuries ' 9 
and "The Easter Hope," this fourth book can 
be interjected between the second and third to 
give a regular gradation, a logical succession, 
of studies, which may be indicated as God in 
the Word, God in the World — of history, God 
in the natural World, and God in the future 
World. The succeeding chapters are of course 
no scientific treatises, but they are simply what 
they are called, namely, Biblical nature studies. 
Such is the title of the work, whose scope is 
sufficiently set forth in "The Seasons" by 
Thomson after this fashion: 

[vii] 



Preface 

"Oh Nature! all-sufficient! over all! 
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works! 
Snatch me to heaven. Thy rolling wonders there, 
World beyond world, in infinite extent, 
Profusely scattered o'er the blue immense, 
Show me; their motions, periods, and their laws, 
Give me to scan ; through the disclosing deep 
Light my blind way." 

Nothing more along the prefatory line need 
be said, but the author feels a strong inclination 
to give the list of the Churches which he has 
served, and to which the volume on a preceding 
page is dedicated. Though for the past ten 
years he has not cared to settle again, having 
travelled more or less at home and abroad, he 
yet, when not on the wing, has been almost con- 
stantly employed here and there as an acting 
pastor. In this capacity he has been with the 
several churches named below long enough to 
form for them a genuine attachment, and they 
therefore are included among those with which 
he has been for longer periods. The various 
fields of ministerial labor herewith enumerated 
bring to his mind many agreeable memory pic- 
tures. The mere mention of them will illustrate 
what Themistocles once said to Xerxes, "that 
a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian 
carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of 
which can only be shown by spreading and 
extending it out; when it is contracted and 
folded up, they are obscure and lost." The 
naming of the following churches, therefore, is 
a pastor's unrolling of the tapestry of his per- 
sonal experience to a sufficient extent for the 

[viii] 



Preface 

revealing of some definite providential designs, 
which are gratefully recalled. 

Student Supply: 

Holland, Vermont ; 
Nevinville-Fontanelle, Iowa ; 
First, Guilford, Connecticut. 

Pastoe : 

Nevinville-Fontanelle, Iowa ; 

Stuart, Iowa; 

First, Ottumwa, Iowa; 

Edwards, Davenport, Iowa; 

Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts; 

Porter, Brockton, Massachusetts. 

Acting Pastor: 

Wallingf ord, Connecticut ; 

First, Milford, Connecticut; 

First, New Britain, Connecticut ; 

Pilgrim, Boston, Massachusetts ; 

First, Springfield, Massachusetts; 

Dorchester Second, Boston, Massachusetts; 

Pilgrim, Los Angeles, California. 

Organizer and Preacher : 

Plymouth, Ottumwa, Iowa; 

And In Boston Suburbs 

Cliftondale in Saugus, 

Waban in Newton. 

Andrew W. Archibald. 

Newton Center, Boston. 

[iil 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass ... 3 

II. Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 21 

III. The Mirage of the Desert 39 

IV. The Trees 55 

V. Autumn Leaves 73 

VI. Treasuries of the Snow ........ 87 

VII. By the Sea 103 

VIII. Fishing Experiences 119 

IX. The White Mountains 135 

X. The Mountains Round About Jerusalem . . 151 

XI. Eagles and Storks 171 

XII. Some Striking Constellations 191 

XIII. The Temple Expanding Round Us to Infinity 207 



xi] 



SITTING DOWN UPON THE GREEN 

GRASS 



SITTING DOWN UPON THE GREEN 

GRASS 

Wokdswokth, that nature poet of the delight- 
ful English Lake region, says : 

"I had rather be 
A pagan nurtured in a creed outworn, 
So might I, standing on some pleasant lea, 
Have glimpses that would leave me less forlorn, 
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 

The cultivated pagan of antiquity did have a 
keen sense of the beauties of the natural world. 
Sophocles, the great tragedian of Athens, has 
left a most pleasing description of the sur- 
roundings of his country villa just outside of 
the Grecian capital. This is what he said of the 
lovely spot: 

' ' Colonus, glistening bright, 
Where evermore, in thickets freshly green, 
The clear-voiced nightingale 
Still haunts and pours her song, 
By purpling ivy hid, 
And the thick foliage sacred to the God. " 

Aristophanes, the celebrated comedian of the 
Golden Age of Greece, has given us a more 
homely touch, which yet is none the less appeal- 
ing, as he represented one saying, "When the 

[3] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

grasshopper's sweet note is heard, how pleas- 
ant to watch the Lemnian vines, to see if the 
grapes are getting ripe, for they are the earliest 
kind. How pleasant to see the green fig swell ! 
And when it is ripe, I eat it and exclaim, What 
weather it is ! ' ' 

Latin literature abounds in equally alluring 
portrayals, like this from the ^Eneid, when 
Virgil in describing the Elysian fields drops 
thus into the imagery of nature : 

' ' In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds 

By crystal streams that murmur through the meads. ' ' 

Wordsworth's pagan, therefore, did greatly ap- 
preciate natural beauty, but there should be in 
this no intimation that the Christian cannot and 
does not. Indeed Cowper makes knowledge of 
God to be essential to the deeper appreciation 
of the well-ordered cosmos. This is what he 
says: 

' ' Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste 
His works. Admitted once to his embrace, 
Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before: 
Thine eye shall be instructed, and thine heart, 
Made pure, shall relish, with divine delight 
Till then unf elt, what hands divine have wrought. ' ' 

It was the Master himself who bade us con- 
sider the lilies of the field and the birds of the 
heaven. Very significantly it is related of him 
once, ' ' And he commanded them that all should 
sit down by companies on the green grass." 
When the disciples had "no leisure so much as 
to eat," they were directed to go apart into a 
' ' desert place to rest awhile. ' ' They accordingly 

[4] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

entered a boat and crossed Gennesaret, but when 
they reached the farther shore, they found that 
the people whom they left behind had walked 
around the head of the lake for a distance of 
about six miles, and were awaiting the arrival 
of the little craft which had tacked hither and 
thither over the sparkling body of water. The 
crowd on the grassy plain at the foot of the 
mountain increased, until there were present 
five thousand men besides women and children. 
It was these who were fed by the supernatural 
multiplying of the five loaves and two fishes, in 
a memorable meal which was indeed a table 
spread in the wilderness. It is to be noted that 
of those who recorded the incident, one men- 
tions the grass, another observes that there was 
"much grass, " while the third with still more 
accurately descriptive instinct speaks of the 
"green grass.' ' The last likewise in referring 
to the arrangement of the vast assemblage into 
"companies" uses a very picturesque word, 
which in the original Greek means "garden- 
plats ' ' or " flower-beds. ' ' Oriental people dress 
in bright and gay colors, blue and red and yel- 
low, and the nicely-arranged groups upon the 
verdant sward brought to the mind of him who 
described the scene a well-cultivated garden or 
a beautiful lawn decked out here and there with 
little mounds all in blossom. Christ 's own eye 
must have been pleased with the sight, for the 
expression is really his, "Sit down by com- 
panies upon the green grass,' ' that is, arrange 

[5] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

yourselves into groups of fifty and a hundred, 
like so many flower beds upon this stretch of 
verdure. And there they did sit down, while 
neighboring mountain and lake and river con- 
tributed to their happiness. 

We need more frequently to place ourselves 
amid such beauteous scenes, while we look 
through nature up to nature 's God. With most 
of us a tender appreciation of natural beauty 
may need cultivating. We may need to be com- 
manded to cross some lake, to climb some moun- 
tain, to go apart into some desert place, to stroll 
by some seashore, to recline upon the green 
grass. Darwin in his Autobiography says that 
up to the age of thirty he enjoyed poetry and 
pictures and especially music. But for many 
years he had lost all taste for these, finding 
even Shakespeare "intolerably dull/' and he 
attributed his inappreciation of what was once 
to him a positive delight to parts of the brain, 
through disuse, becoming ' i atrophied. ' ' He 
added that if he could have lived his life over 
again, he "would have made a rule to read some 
poetry and listen to some music at least once 
every week." He acknowledged that his ex- 
clusively scientific habits may have been injuri- 
ous to his intellect, and more probably to his 
moral character. That is an honest confession 
from the great naturalist, and we ought to real- 
ize the danger of inborn capabilities of ours 
suffering atrophy, as they gradually dwindle 
away through lack of needed nourishing. We 

[6] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

need to keep in touch with God's works by fre- 
quent communing therewith, and that, too, with 
some play of the finer spiritual feelings, and 
not simply with the analytic methods of the 
scientist. We should endeavor to come into the 
warmly sympathetic attitude of Jesus and his 
immediate disciples. 

There is a well-known picture given of Soc- 
rates in the opening lines of the philosophic 
discussion in which Phaedrus leads out. The 
latter, having spent a day with a famous rhet- 
orician, is taking a walk into the country to 
refresh himself, and to peruse, it is suspected, 
one of the consulted orator's speeches, for he 
is carrying a suspicious roll under his cloak 
He is met by Socrates, and the two start off 
together along the Ilissus, a clear brook in 
which they cool their unsandalled feet, till they 
come to a shady plane-tree. Before the read- 
ing and discussion begin, they admire the 
beauty of the spot. They are delighted with the 
soft rhythm of insect life, with the fragrance 
floated to them from a tree in bloom, with the 
grateful fanning of their heated brows by balmy 
breezes, while, it is said, -the greatest charm 
ol all is the grass like a pillow gently sloping 
to the head.- The philosopher expressed his 
satisfaction at having been drawn out of the 
city into the country, and after throwing him- 
self at full length upon the verdant slope under 
the shade of the tree, while the limpid brook 
sang at his feet, he bade his friend to choose 

17] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

his own posture and to proceed with the reading 

of the scroll. 

The Lord would have approved of all that, 
and he tells us to go apart occasionally from the 
ceaseless activities of our busy life, to retire 
to some place of solitude, to lie down m the 
meadow with crystal river in full sight, to con- 
sider the lilies, to note the daisies and daffodils 
and blue-bells and buttercups while a lesson of 
trust in God is learned, to be observant of the 
birds singing among the branches, while a spirit 
of quiet contentment is thus nurtured. One can- 
not be amid the beauties of nature and not feel 
a sweet call to worship. 

When Wordsworth wrote his "Ode on the 
Intimations of Immortality ,' ' he gathered much 
of inspiration from the natural world, as is 
evident from such lines as these in the poem : 

< ' I love the brooks which down their channels fret. 

<<Tome the meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 

Ealph Waldo Emerson, from the time when 
he and his brother as boys drove their widowed 
mother's cow to pasture on Boston Common, 
never ceased to feel the sweet influence of na- 
ture unspoiled by brick and mortar. He felt 
that sea-shells, which were pearls on the shore, 
became "noisome things" when brought away 
from the associations of "the bubbles of the 
latest wave." He says again in his own ex- 
quisite way: 

[8] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

' ' I thought the sparrow 's note from heaven, 
Singing at dawn on the alder bough; 
I brought him home, in his nest, at even; 
He sings the song, but it pleases not now, 
For I did not bring home the river and sky." 

We must, as he adds, yield ourselves "to the 
perfect whole/ ' to nature as it is, if we would 
get the full benefit of its beauty. 

More frequently than we do, should we get 
away from the artificial to the natural. It will 
do us good to see the bird, as Lowell says, sit 
"like a blossom among the leaves," to hear 
with Bryant 

' ' The soft winds 
That run along the summit of these trees 
In music. ' ' 

The thought of God will steal over us, as we 
farther say with the latter poet, 

"Be it ours to meditate, 
In these calm shades, thy milder majesty, 
And to the beautiful order of thy works 
Learn to conform the order of our lives." 

Hawthorne's name will always be associated 
with the "Old Manse," which his literary ge- 
nius made luminous. This ancient parsonage 
at Concord he pictures most charmingly amid 
its ample grounds on the banks of the ' ' slug- 
gish" and peaceful river rendered historic 
by the "embattled farmers" who started the 
Revolution, 

"And fired the shot heard round the world." 

He loved the garden and orchard there, and 

[9] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

"the sunshine glimmering through the willow- 
branches," and the broad " avenue of black ash 
trees," and the "shadows that lay half asleep." 
Amid such attractive scenes we hear the man of 
literature saying, "I recline upon the still un- 
withered grass, and whisper to myself: — Oh, 
perfect day ! Oh, beautiful world ! Oh, benefi- 
cent God! And it is the promise of a blessed 
eternity; for our Creator would never have 
made such lovely days, and have given us the 
deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond 
all thought, unless we were meant to be immor- 
tal. ' 9 This Moss gathered from the Old Manse 
should stimulate in us worshipful emotions 
under similar circumstances. In this way there 
comes healing to frayed nerves. 

More of leisure is needed in human life. We 
need repeatedly to retire for communion with 
Him who made the world and all that is therein. 
He does not come to the chafed and heated 
spirit. He does not come to us, as the Song of 
Songs says, 

' ' Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away. ' ' 

When there has been a high temperature, how 
refreshingly comes the hour of sunset with its 
upspringing breeze. We sit on open verandas, 
or on velvety lawns that receive their artificial 
shower baths often enough to keep them green, 
and we listen to the gentle rustling of the leaves 
on the trees beneath which we linger, until 
our fevered brows and perturbed spirits are 

[10] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

soothed. There is needed in our lives more of 
the cool of the day, more of its tranquilising 
effects. There is too much of rush and worry. 
We are living too fast. The activities of mod- 
ern life are tremendous. The substitution of 
the country for the city makes a happy and 
beneficial change. Gray's " Elegy Written in 
a Country Churchyard ,, gives an experience 
which every one should have, and which it was 
mine particularly to have on a visit to Stoke 
Pogis, the scene of the poem. There the famil- 
iar lines were appreciated as never before. 

" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day; 
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea; 
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 

"Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." 

Busy men and women need more frequently 
to get into such scenes, rural and peaceful, away 
from carking care. Dr. Henry Van Dyke in a 
chapter on "A Lazy, Idle Brook' ' well says, 
"Indolence is a virtue. It comes from two 
Latin words, which mean freedom from anxiety 
or grief. And that is a wholesome state of 
mind. There are times and seasons when it is 
even a pious and blessed state of mind. Not 
to be in a hurry ; not to be ambitious or jealous 
or resentful; not to feel envious of anybody; 
not to fret about today nor worry about to- 
morrow, — that is the way we ought to feel at 

[11] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

some time in our lives; and that is the kind 
of indolence in which our brook faithfully 
encouraged us." 

Even if we are largely confined to the town, 
we yet can get the desired aloofness from the 
"madding crowd," if we do not voluntarily 
suffer ourselves to be driven by our work "like 
the quarry slave. ' ' We can spend a little more 
time at home, we can with the family watch the 
sun set, we can with them admire the crimson 
and the gold in a resplendent sky, we can sit 
and enjoy together the gathering of the shad- 
ows, while gentlest zephyrs chase one another 
among the flowers, and waft the fragrance 
thereof to us for our delectation. We need not 
be continually on the run. We can stroll lei- 
surely by Edenic residential grounds, and drink 
in their loveliness. Professor Phelps says of 
a walk which the venerable Professor Stuart 
of Andover once took, "he observed in a door- 
yard as he passed it a rare and beautiful speci- 
men of a French dahlia. He paused; and, 
leaning over the fence, he was heard ejaculating 
in low tones his thanksgiving for such an im- 
pressive proof of the benevolence of God." 
There should be more of this reverent and glad 
recognition of the divine goodness along every 
street. We should not let business, or domestic 
care, or anything secular absorb all the atten- 
tion. We should oftener get away in our 
thoughts from the commercial and all that ordi- 
narily presses upon the mind; we should get 

[12] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

away from the "burden of the day and the 
scorching heat," and have more of the cool of 
the day, where God walks in stillness and yet 
in glory. 

We shall thus be enabled to maintain the 
cheerier and the truer view of life. The right 
standpoint is everything for a correct estimate 
of conditions. Very illuminating is the story 
of the two buckets which constantly met and 
passed in a well. The one creaked out, ' ' This 
is dreadful, for however full I am when I go 
up, I always come down empty." The other 
clanked its chain merrily as it responded, 
1 ' This is just splendid, for no matter how empty 
I am when I go down, I invariably come up 
full." We cannot keep this equanimity of 
spirit, and this bright outlook on life, unless 
in quiet communion with nature we lose all 
ferment and heat of mind. 

We are allowing ourselves to be too much 
driven and fretted. There should be more of 
the repose of trust in God. We are not to 
imagine that everything is going to ruin, that 
God's cause is not going to triumph, unless we 
drive our chariot like Jehu, unless we run our 
engine at constant high pressure. To our bus- 
tling activity and to our worrying over lack 
of results, the Master says, Stop right there, 
' ' sit down. ' ' This of course does not mean that 
we are to feel no responsibility, that we are to 
put forth no strenuous effort. We are to be 
concerned to a proper extent, for instance, for 

[13] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

the success of the gospel. When something 
over a century ago the whole Church was dead 
to the cause of Christian evangelization, and 
William Carey rose in a meeting and urged the 
binding force of the Lord's command to preach 
the gospel to every creature, a venerable Doc- 
tor of Divinity peremptorily ordered the young 
man to "sit down," since when God wanted 
the world converted he would effect his pur- 
pose without feeble human agency. The great 
Teacher would never have endorsed that com- 
mand to sit down, and yet he does bid us do 
that in various ways. He, for example, tells 
us to sow our seed, and then to bide our time, 
not to expect the harvest too soon ; in due sea- 
son we shall reap, if we faint not. We cannot 
hurry the maturing of the grain, we might as 
well go on sleeping and rising, as the parable 
says, while the seed grows secretly; not be- 
coming impatient but sitting down and confi- 
dently expecting a rich outcome from labors 
that have been expended. 

To be sure, there is danger of dropping into 
listlessness, of not exerting ourselves suffi- 
ciently. This is true intellectually. Prescott 
spent ten years in writing his "Ferdinand and 
Isabella,' ' and he thus produced a valuable his- 
tory. But he sometimes felt that he was taking 
too much time, perhaps, for the task, or at 
least that he must guard against idleness, for 
he once said, "I have sometimes been obliged 
to whip myself up to the work. ' ' We do, time 

[14] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

and again, need to put ourselves under pres- 
sure, a certain spur to action occasionally is 
helpful. There should not be, however, too 
much excitation, till there conies a paralysis of 
faculties, and till there is none of the strength 
of reserved power. When there comes flurry, 
when one becomes flustered, when there is not 
the steadiness of a quiet self-control, when 
there is mere agitation without accomplish- 
ment, be it along mental or religious lines, then 
Christ would have us be, not like the nervous 
Martha so troubled that nothing went right, but 
like the reposeful Mary who sat at his feet and 
learned to labor and to wait. 

We hear often enough about improving every 
minute, and a diligent use of time is right. 
President Wayland was fond of quoting to his 
students at Brown University these words of 
the first Napoleon, ' ' Never waste a half hour : 
if you do, the time will come when you will 
be embarrassed, and perhaps will fail of your 
destiny, for want of what you might have 
gained in that half hour. " Napoleon endeav- 
ored to make practical in his own career that 
advice, and when, a man of war, he was asked 
how he came by his knowledge of jurisprudence 
such that a celebrated code bore his name, he 
replied that once for a breach of military disci- 
pline he was under arrest and in confinement 
for three weeks, and that in a corner of his 
room was a pile of old books, and among them 
the Pandects of Justinian, containing the ele- 

[15] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

ments of Roman civil law. ' ' By the time I was 
ordered back to duty," he says, "I had fully 
mastered that work; and, when the time and 
occasion came, I was able to apply my knowl- 
edge.' ' That is a fine example of the impor- 
tance of keeping busily employed, and for lack 
of this there not infrequently comes deep 
regret. 

Sir Walter Scott slighted the studies of the 
regular college curriculum, and did not grad- 
uate, but he afterward said, "It is with the 
deepest regret that I recollect in my manhood 
the opportunities of learning which I neglected 
in my youth." This emphasizes the same 
truth, that we should steadily apply ourselves 
to the business in hand, that we should consider 
time too valuable to be wasted. 

Now all this we hear with sufficient frequency, 
but the opposite truth we do not so often 
have brought to our attention: Do not work 
too hard, do not toil excessively for the bread 
that perisheth, "take time to be holy," to cul- 
tivate the spiritual ; in the midst of your multi- 
form secularities, stop and think of what is 
higher, "sit down upon the green grass," and 
reflect. Even Thoreau, who was not known for 
his deep religiousness, but only for his intense 
love of nature as he roamed the woods around 
Walden and elsewhere, rejoiced in being able to 
say that by six weeks of manual toil he could get 
enough to supply his simple wants physically 
for a whole year, and that he could thus devote 

[16] 



Sitting Down Upon the Green Grass 

all the rest of his time to intellectual pursuits, 
and he did. He studied the habits of birds and 
insects, and from the forest brought forth re- 
flections that went to form several unrivalled 
volumes. He did not believe in toiling so much 
for the temporal, but more for the intellectual. 
He had his eccentricities, but we might well 
follow his example to a certain extent, only 
substituting the religious for the chief good. 

We often are reluctant to quit our labor along 
secular lines for one day in seven, we can hardly 
give ourselves that respite, we hesitate to cease 
our monotonous round for so long as that. 
There is something to what Thoreau once said : 
' 'The order of things should be reversed: the 
seventh should be man's day of toil, in which 
to earn his living by the sweat of his brow, and 
the other six his Sabbath of the affections and 
the soul, in which to range this wide-spread 
garden, and drink in the soft influences and 
sublime revelations of Nature.' ' And yet for 
the higher ends of existence, men generally in- 
stead of devoting six days a week thereto can 
hardly give the seventh. They crowd the 
Lord's Day itself full of the secular, they read 
column after column of the daily newspaper, 
until we feel like saying with the quaint char- 
acter already quoted, "Read not the Times, 
read the Eternities." If the worn and weary 
throngs would listen and obey, they would be 
fed and refreshed, as were those of old, with 
bread from heaven, and in the strength of that 

[17] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

celestial food, of that spiritual nourishment, 
they would be able like the prophet of God to 
go another forty days' journey along the toil- 
some way of the desert. 

' ' The calm retreat, the silent shade, 
With prayer and praise agree, 
And seem by thy sweet bounty made 
For those who worship thee. ' ' 



[18] 



II 

MIRRORS, NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL 



II 

MIRRORS, NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL 

We are to consider mirrors, natural and 
spiritual. Visiting once the Yosemite Valley, 
we were more impressed by it than with any 
other American marvels which we have been 
privileged to see. We do not except Niagara 
with its thunders, and with its fascinating and 
yet fearsome Rapids whirling madly along like 
Jehu with his wild driving. We also felt the 
matchless Valley lying among the high Sierras 
to be superior to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 
with its yawning and stupendous chasm thir- 
teen miles wide at the surface, and more than 
a mile deep down to the Colorado River at its 
bottom, and with its towering walls resembling 
cathedral and castle painted in the most varie- 
gated way by the divine Artist. 

We preferred the Yosemite even to the Yel- 
lowstone Park, which is a veritable wonderland. 
It has paint pots of boiling, bubbling mud. It 
has pools of scalding water, and of colors giv- 
ing such names as Emerald and Morning Glory. 
It has a punch bowl that ought not to be called 
the devil 's, as it is, when fit for the gods to 
drink from, if they like their nectar hot. It has 
an expansive lake at an altitude considerably 

[21] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

higher than Mount Washington. It has a can- 
yon colored red and green and yellow and pur- 
ple and blue. It especially has phenomenal 
geysers, like the majestic Giant springing into 
the air 250 feet, and like Old Faithful lifting 
a watery column of 250,000 gallons from its 
growling throat, and holding it aloft 150 feet 
for three or four minutes, and doing this 
every seventy minutes with the regularity of 
clockwork. 

Notwithstanding all these wonders of the 
Yellowstone, we still give the palm to the Yo- 
semite Valley, closed in with gigantic rock 
formations, like El Capitan rising almost per- 
pendicularly 3,200 feet above the floor of the 
valley, itself being 4,000 feet above the sea level, 
while at the other end of the gorge the great 
Half Dome has an elevation of 8,737 feet. Aside 
from the grandeur of these granite heights, 
there is the sylvan beauty of a meadowy vale, 
through which winds a murmuring river. There 
are attractive Falls, like the Bridal Veil, whose 
silvery mist with rainbow hues constitutes a 
delicate, filmy creation such as a celestial bride 
might aspire to wear. Then there is the great 
Yosemite Fall seeming to leap from the sky 
itself with nothing visible beyond, and plunging 
down a half mile with a continuous roar that 
makes your every nerve tingle. There is again 
the shelving rock at Glacier Point projecting 
out over the valley at such a dizzy height, that 
rarely is there a person level-headed and 

[22] 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

steady-brained enough to creep out to the edge 
tor a look downward of 3,300 feet, though occa- 
sionally there is one foolhardy enough to stand 
on his hands or head on that stone jutting out 
into space. 

After all these revelations we nevertheless in 
a sense reach our culminating point of interest 
as in the freshness of the early morning we 
repair to what is little more than a pond, that 

y i e L 1S ?x. gem ' nestlin £ at the base of beetling 
chits. We gaze down into the placid water and 
see not only the massive Half Dome outlined 
there, but we also see the sun by reflection rise 
several times. The surrounding mountains are 
such, that the orb of day rising above one height 
appears in the crystal depth below. Then it 
disappears behind a high cliff, only to appear 
again as it mounts still higher to an opening 
and this it does repeatedly, and we have seen 
the sun rise a succession of times in what has 
very properly been called— Mirror Lake. 

In the Canadian Eockies every one is 
charmed, as the writer has been, with the 
reflecting features of Lake Louise, nestling like 
Lake Mohonk in the Catskills among the ever- 
lasting hills at an altitude of 5,645 feet There 

•?ri Vi ? toria > n > 326 ^et high, sees herself 
with her beautiful white crown of snow con- 
trasting pleasantly with the emerald and some- 
times bluish hue of the waters. Ascending 
directly from the shore something over 1 000 
teet, and you are at "the lakes in the clouds," 

[23] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

one of which, for an obvious reason, is expressly 
called Mirror Lake. 

The Adirondacks, too, have not only their 
Lake Placid but also its close companion, Mir- 
ror Lake, and in Otsego Lake we have James 
Fenimore Cooper's " glimmer glass" with its 
unfading literary associations, while there is re- 
called what the writer of the "Leather-Stocking 
Tales" says so pleasingly, "A broad sheet of 
water, so placid and limpid that it resembled 
a bed of pure mountain atmosphere, com- 
pressed into a setting of hills and woods. On 
all sides, wherever the eye turned, nothing met 
it but the mirror-like surface of the lake, the 
placid view of heaven, and the dense setting of 
the woods." 

It is the same east and west, north and south. 
Of a well-known glassy expanse in Maine, 
included in a New England itinerary of mine, 
Whittier has said : 

1 < Around Sebago 's lonely lake 
There lingers not a breeze to break 
The mirror which its waters make. ' ' 

Like this, if Milton's poetic inspiration be cor- 
rect, was the looking glass which our mother 
Eve had at the very beginning of human his- 
tory. At the "murmuring sound of waters," 
the blind bard makes her say, 

"I thither went 
With unexperienced thought, and laid me down 
On the green bank, to look into the clear 
Smooth lake that to me seemed another sky. 

[24] 



?? 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

As I bent down to look, just opposite 

A shape within the watery gleam appeared, 

Bending to look on me. I started back; 

It started back; but pleased I soon returned, 

Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks 

Of sympathy and love. There had I fixed 

Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire, 

Had not a voice thus warned me : What thou seest, 

What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself. " 

Scarcely thus had she come to consciousness, 
and before she had yet seen Adam, she was 
casting shy, admiring glances at herself re- 
flected in an Edenic lake, a very characteristic 
thing for a woman to do even in her primeval 
innocence. 

Then Byron makes the mirror to have been 
quite ancient, when he says of the ocean, l ' Thou 
glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
glasses itself,' ' and Job represents the trans- 
lucent, overarching sky to be "as a molten 
mirror. " Mirrors of polished metal were in 
early use. Hebrew women had them in the time 
of Moses, as we learn from the book of Exodus, 
and it must be said to their credit, that they 4 
gave up their bronze mirrors to make the laver 
of brass for the tabernacle where they wor- 
shipped. Glass mirrors with coated or silvered 
backs seem to have originated at Venice some- 
thing over three centuries ago. But aside from 
what nature and art have furnished us along 
this line, we have another kind of mirror as 
indicated in the Scripture, "We all, with un- 
veiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory 
of the Lord, are transformed into the same 

[25] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

image from glory to glory. " It is the Bible 
wherein is reflected the highest beauty. The 
gospel is a looking glass which God has made 
for our use. 

There is suggested, first, how we are to look, 
"with unveiled face. " In the chapter contain- 
ing this striking passage, Paul condemns the 
way in which the Jews were accustomed to read 
the Old Testament. They paid more attention 
to the letter than to the spirit. They were al- 
ways looking after outward ceremonies. This 
formalism, this lack of sincere desire for spirit- 
ual impressions, the apostle compares to a veil 
which prevented clearness and correctness of 
vision. Now we are to look, he says with un- 
veiled face. We are to put away all self-right- 
eous legalism, and we are to be reverent and 
humble and devout in the study of the Word, 
willing to learn and obey. We are not to look 
into the gospel system with complacent satis- 
faction in ourselves, and with finical dissat- 
isfaction at the conduct of others. That is what 
we do when we pride ourselves on our morality, 
and when we are constantly hitting at the in- 
consistencies of others. That is Pharisaism, 
and the proud moralist is a Pharisee. He in the 
long ago felt his superiority to other men. He 
had such a holy horror of the manner in which 
others lived, that he had no indignation left for 
himself. 

Try to fix the attention of such a one now 
upon his own sinfulness and consequent need of 

[26] 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

salvation, and he is sure to go off into denun- 
ciation of others. If at last you manage to hold 
him to the subject, to himself, he will begin 
a process of self-glorification; he is strictly 
moral, not an extortioner, not unjust, nor even 
as that publican, and away he goes with his 
animadversion upon some one else again. Edi- 
son, whom we admire for his scientific and 
inventive attainments, did that a while ago in 
assailing preachers, and in saying that if there 
was a heaven, he would get there sooner than 
they, thus holding himself up before the pub- 
lic, with his smug sort of goodness, as quite 
a model. No one can take this supercilious 
attitude before God, and be blessed. His face 
is veiled, self-righteousness intervenes between 
him and the gospel mirror. 

There could not be a better illustration of 
those whose only religion consists of fault- 
finding with others. They are blind to their 
own condition. Their sight is blurred by the 
veil of self-righteousness which they have on. 
They know a good deal about Christianity, but 
they do not grasp its inner meaning, its spirit- 
ual and personal import. Not matter of fact, 
self-satisfied glances in the mirror, but earnest 
attention is what gives the true image mirrored 
there. This is what the inspired James says : 
"If any one is a hearer of the word, and not 
a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his 
natural face in a mirror : for he beholdeth him- 
self, and goeth away, and straightway forget- 

[27] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

teth what manner of man he was." No close 
inspection is indicated there. One looks into 
the glass as a matter of habit, and off he goes, 
with no definite impression except that he is all 
fair enough. The survey is anything but search- 
ing. "But he that looketh into the perfect 
law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being 
not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that 
worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing. " 
He looks long and intently, and is rewarded 
with very distinct impressions, which are by no 
means altogether favorable, and which make 
him set to work on improving himself. That 
is the way to look, not with the veil of self- 
satisfaction dimming the glass, but with all the 
intensity of unveiled face, eager to learn our 
imperfections, in order that we may know just 
what to do, and that doing it we may grow up 
toward perfection. 

It is the self-complacent person, and not the 
penitent and saved sinner, who acts the part of 
Narcissus in the classical tale of old. He saw 
nothing to admire in the beautiful nymphs of 
the woods and hills. They were lovely as god- 
desses, but he saw in them nothing to attract. 
One day, however, he came to a clear, silvery 
fountain, with verdant banks, and sheltered 
from the hot sun by cool rocks. He saw re- 
flected therein his own image, of which he at 
once became enamored. He fairly adored the 
beloved object mirrored in the water, the bright 
eyes, the full cheeks, the ivory neck, the godlike 

[28] 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

head of hair, and the ruddy countenance that 
glowed with health. He thrust his arms into 
the fountain to embrace the fair one, but it 
fled like a fairy creature ; then, after a moment 
when the water had become still and placid 
again, it returned, and beamed upon him from 
the crystal depths. He just doted upon his own 
reflection, till he lost his appetite, his health, 
his beauty, and he finally pined away and died. 
Even when his shade crossed the Stygian river, 
he leaned over the boat to admire the reflection 
of himself in the deep, dark water. Thus he 
passed away, self-satisfied to the last, and from 
his decomposed body sprang a lone flower, all 
that remained of him who once was so fair, and 
the Narcissus, bearing his name, is his only 
memorial. He evidently did not have clearness 
of spiritual vision, to see in himself so much 
with which to be pleased. He well represents 
the self-righteous moralist, whose eyes are 
veiled. We are to look with unveiled face, and 
thus get the true impression of our imperfect 
characters, which thereupon we will try to im- 
prove, and especially when we also realize our 
mortality, that soon these frames of ours will 
pass into shrub and flower. But there can be 
the emergence and beauty of the immortal, if 
we get the correct estimate of ourselves in the 
gospel mirror. 

For what, next, are we to look in our spiritual 
reflector! This has already been negatively 
answered, that we are not to be infatuated with 

[29] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

our own, as it seems to us, fair image. But 
more positively we are to gaze upon him who 
is "fairer than the sons of men. " Says Paul, 
"beholding as in a mirror the glory of the 
Lord. ' ' That is a novel use to make of looking- 
glasses. Their design has been supposed to 
be for contemplating one's own beautiful ap- 
pearance, or, nicely and even exquisitely 
wrought, they themselves have been works of 
art, objects of beauty. Chrysostom, the elo- 
quent Greek preacher of the fourth century, had 
to rebuke the ladies of his time for the extrav- 
agant fashion of silver mirrors. Seneca, the 
Eoman philosopher of the first century, had 
occasion to speak with disapproval of golden 
mirrors. The gospel mirror is neither itself 
the thing to be admired, nor is it for admiring 
ourselves. The glory of the Lord primarily is 
reflected. Christ in all his loveliness, the chief - 
est among ten thousand, is what we are to look 
for. And our mind must not be all taken up 
with the external history of the God-man. 
Many a person with a keen appreciation of the 
dramatic, of the poetic, of the true and good 
and beautiful, can read the story and pronounce 
it wonderful. One may feel that the Bible is 
the best of all books, that the Christian system 
is beautiful, and yet lack the one thing needful. 
He may be all absorbed in the mirror itself, 
while never seeing the resplendent face within. 
Not bare acquaintance with the gospel, but ex- 
perimental or experiential knowledge of Christ 

[30] 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

in the gospel, is most important. The mirror 
is beautiful, but the glory of the Lord in it is 
more beautiful. Not the reflector but the one 
reflected is what especially demands attention, 
and that one is not man so much as the God- 
man. At any rate Christ is the chief figure 
appearing in the glass. 

The face of the natural man is there delin- 
eated also, and yet to any but a Narcissus, 
one's own moral visage is so black and repel- 
ling, that he instinctively turns to the glorious 
countenance at the center. The metallic mirror 
of the ancients was supported by a handle, on 
which was sometimes carved the face of a mon- 
ster, as a kind of foil, "serving as a contrast," 
says another, "to the features whose beauty was 
displayed within." What now are we to look 
for in the gospel mirror! The beauty of the 
Lord, and if you wish to heighten that beauty, 
contrast it with the image of the natural man. 
That will answer the same purpose as the mon- 
ster face on the handle of the ancient mirror. 
It will make Christ appear the all in all, every- 
thing, as he should be. The epistle to the He- 
brews sums up this thought in three words, 
"looking unto Jesus," or, "beholding as in a 
mirror the glory of the Lord, ' ' seeing there our 
own moral repulsiveness, but more particularly 
his moral beauty, even "the beauty of the 
Lord. ' ' 

The result of the looking is next indicated, 
"are transformed in the same image." It is 

[31] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

the principle of like producing like, of outward 
circumstances influencing inward spirit. Let 
one look on beautiful objects, and he is more 
apt to grow beautiful. People partake more 
or less of the nature of their surroundings. 
One can pass through a crowded train and tell 
pretty accurately the general characteristics of 
the homes which the different travellers have 
left, from their personal appearance, from their 
looks. Some have attributed the handsome 
forms of the ancient Greeks to the multitude 
of graceful statues, which passers-by could 
feast their eyes upon in the gardens and places 
of public resort. At any rate, we become in a 
degree like what we see every day. And so 
if we fix our attention upon Christ as reflected 
in the gospel, we must become Christ-like. 
When the spiritual eyesight dwells upon a char- 
acter so transcendently perfect, an impression 
is left. 

The science of optics teaches that seeing with 
the natural eyes is the formation of the object 
upon an internal nervous tissue called the ret- 
ina, the thing looked at is photographed there, 
imaged in the eye. With the eyes of faith con- 
template that divine person mirrored in the 
gospel, and the apostle's language will be very 
appropriate, Christ "formed in you," on the 
soul-retina. Indeed one would think from the 
way Paul wrote, that he was actually two per- 
sons. "I live," he says, "Yet no longer I, but 
Christ liveth in me." There was the old self, 

[32] 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

and then transforming it was the new spirit 
within. If we would put the old man off and 
the new man on, if we would be transformed 
into the same image as Christ, we have only 
with unveiled face, with sincerity, to behold as 
in a mirror the glory of the Lord. Look at 
him as photographed in the Xew Testament, 
and his impression will be made on the heart. 
Keep the eyes upon him, and he will be formed 
within. That is the result of peering earnestly 
into God's looking glass; one is changed into 
the same image as the glorious person mirrored 
there. 

The change, however, is gradual, "trans- 
formed into the same image from glory to 
glory. " At first it may be only a faint impres- 
sion, but it soon becomes a deep reality, Christ 
actually forming, as it were, in the heart. The 
formation is never complete in this world. 
There is progress. "Now we see in a mirror 
darkly," says the chief of the apostles. At the 
best we only get a reflection of God in the Bible. 
We have to use an indistinct mirror, and so 
after all we see him only dimly in this life, "but 
then," it is added, "face to face." That will 
be a beatific vision, when we gaze lovingly and 
adoringlv not into God's looking glass but into 
his own face. "It is not yet made manifest 
what we shall be," says the beloved disciple, 
who continues, "we know that, if he shall be 
manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall 
see him even as he is." TTe shall no longer 

[33] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

see any faint reflection of him in a mirror, but 
we shall see him as he actually is. And why 
shall we be like him? "For we shall see him. ,, 
It is still the same principle at work, the being 
transformed into likeness to what we look at, 
growing like what most has our attention. And 
when ultimately we awake in the divine like- 
ness, we too, like the psalmist, "shall be satis- 
fied," for we shall see him no longer darkly, in 
a mirror, with vagueness, with a certain blur, 
but as he is, face to face. 

While we have seen that the Bible is a look- 
ing glass to reflect God, it has been aptly said 
that ' ' the Christian is the world 's Bible. ' ' The 
written Word is often but slightly scanned, 
but disciples, says inspiration, are epistles 
"known and read of all men." They are 
watched with the closest scrutiny. They never 
escape observation, they are read through and 
through. Every page of their life is scruti- 
nized, and many a place is marked to be re- 
ferred to afterward with sneers. Not an 
unseemly story, not a disgraceful chapter, is 
passed over. Indeed such parts are singled 
out, and learned by heart, and gloated over. 
To be sure, critics like buzzards hasten by 
everything sweet in a character, and fix upon 
the putrid spots, but that is all the more reason 
for keeping such spots out. In other words, 
the Lord's followers should be true Bibles 
throughout, untarnished mirrors, to reflect God 
and not to reflect on God. Imperfections of 

[34] 



Mirrors, Natural and Spiritual 

character do dishonor him, they are blemishes 
on the mirror. 

The more any catch of the radiance shining 
out from that face in the gospel, the clearer 
and purer will be the light radiated from them 
to others. Daily should they be transformed 
into the divine image. Then as the world ex- 
amines their life, it will be looking into a glass 
showing in each a face Christ-like in all the 
graces, and thus still others shall be changed 
into the same image from glory to glory. And 
yet, do the best that any can, they will only be, 
according to another rendering of the passage, 
"reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the 
Lord." They will be reflecting Christ only 
" darkly,' ' they will be giving the world a very 
indistinct and inadequate conception of what 
their Master really is. Nevertheless, others 
must take knowledge of them that they have 
been with Jesus, getting from them some idea 
of the Christ-like. Though they reflect only 
dimly the Lord's glory, even that will make its 
impression. If they keep steadily before them 
the transfigured one, eventually there will be 
made upon them an abiding impression, increas- 
ingly there will be awakened in them an earnest 
desire and purpose to become more and more 
like their great Exemplar, while there con- 
stantly goes on religious transmutation of sin- 
ful human life, Christian transformation of 
character. 

[35] 



Ill 

THE MIRAGE OF THE DESERT 



Ill 

THE MIRAGE OF THE DESERT 

Many have no idea that there is any mention 
of the mirage in the Bible, but there is. It 
occurs in connection with Isaiah's well-known 
references to the desert, when he says that the 
parched ground or the glowing sand shall be- 
come a pool. The marginal and literal render- 
ing is, "And the mirage shall become a pool." 
In close connection a barren and sandy waste 
is represented. It is farther portrayed as un- 
dergoing a marvelous transformation, "The 
wilderness and solitary place shall be glad; 
and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the 
rose." 

It is by drawing such contrasts between fer- 
tility and sterility, that we get the truest con- 
ception of the desert. Accordingly there are 
allusions to Carmel and Sharon and Bashan 
and Lebanon. Each of these names is very 
suggestive to the Old Testament reader of 
beauty and fruitfulness, contrasting strongly 
with what the prophet describes as ' ' dust ' ' and 
"burning pitch." Every tourist, who crosses 
the Continent to Southern California, and who 
from the Mojave desert drops down over the 
mountains into San Bernardino with its orange 

[39] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

groves, can appreciate what the sacred writer 
tries to set forth. 

Or, we call to mind Sahara, Africa's vast 
stretch of hot sand, three thousand miles in 
extreme length, and a thousand on an average 
in width. It has no rainfall, it has a climate of 
burning aridity, the temperature under a ver- 
tical sun sometimes rising to two hundred de- 
grees. There is no verdure to absorb the rays, 
but, glowing sand everywhere, like an oven, 
reflects them seven times heated. There are 
no bracing breezes, but only simoons and other 
furnace-like winds, which carry with them 
clouds of the dry, red particles that are like 
fine, hot shot to assail the face. Very properly 
has the question been agitated as to whether 
this dreary waste cannot be reclaimed for vege- 
tation and for cultivation, by reconverting part 
of it into a sea like that which at no remote 
geological period, probably during the glacial 
epoch, did roll over the sandy bottom. It has 
been proposed to cut a canal, and let the At- 
lantic or Mediterranean sweep in, if possibly 
thereby the atmosphere might be modified, and 
the wilderness and solitary place might be made 
glad, the desert being made to rejoice and 
blossom as the rose. That would be a glorious 
transformation, justifying Isaiah's exuberant 
description. 

Now there is a desert more immense than 
Mojave or Sahara. As another has said, 
" Earth is a desert drear." This life has been 

[40] 



The Mirage of the Desert 

called a wilderness of woe. There may be and 
are pleasant oases, there may be and is for 
us the "shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land," and yet in the main we are crossing an 
arid desert, with burning sands beneath our 
feet and with a glowing sun above our heads. 
Ours at present is more largely than is agree- 
able the torrid zone, is what one of the Lord's 
parables calls "the burden and heat of the 
day," or, as the Revised Version has it, "the 
scorching heat. ' ' 

With the desert thus indicated, we come next 
to the mirage thereon. All are acquainted with 
this strange natural phenomenon, with this op- 
tical illusion. There is the appearance of water 
ahead for the thirsty traveller, but the treach- 
erous lake ever recedes. It seems real, but it 
is all a delusion. Says Southey, 

' ' Still the same burning sun ! no cloud in heaven ! 
The hot air quivers, and the sultry mist 
Floats o'er the desert, with a show 
Of distant waters mocking their distress. " 

The deception is most complete. The apparent 
lake sometimes is dotted with little islands. It 
may have an undulatory surface, while its heav- 
ing bosom is traversed by shadows chasing one 
another in the most natural manner. Shade 
trees occasionally are seen on its shore, which 
rippling waves seem to lave. But the deceitful 
sheet of water retreats as fast as one advances. 
It is never overtaken. It is a mirage, which 

[41] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

often occurs in the moral as well as in the 
physical world. 

Must we ever be disappointed? Certainly 
not, for the glowing sand, the mirage, shall 
become a pool. That is, the illusive appearance 
of a lake shall become a real body of water. 
The same prophet says elsewhere, "They shall 
not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat 
smite them: for he that hath mercy on them 
shall lead them, even by the springs of water. ' ' 
The margin again says, "neither shall the 
mirage smite them," for God shall lead them 
where there is cool, springing water. He does 
not disappoint souls thirsting for righteous- 
ness. He does not allure them on by any 
mirage. 

Jeremiah did once feel that God was leading 
him deceptively on, and in his distress he cried 
out, "Wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceit- 
ful brook, as waters that fail?" There may 
be here an allusion to the mirage, although the 
word is not directly used, as it is the two times 
by Isaiah. Both prophets, however, were as- 
sured that God never does disappoint ; nay, he 
alone turns the appearance of a lake into the 
genuine thing. "The mirage shall become a 
pool," is the assertion, which is followed with 
the explanation, "and the thirsty ground 
springs of water," which is preceded also 
by the explanatory, "for in the wilderness shall 
waters break out, and streams in the desert." 
Only the irreligious and unbelieving are mocked 

[42] 



The Mirage of the Desert 

by the ever-receding lake, are tantalized like 
Tantalus, who in the Grecian tale stood to the 
chin in water which yet constantly eluded him 
in his insatiable thirst. Mohammed was right 
when he said in the Koran, ' ' As for those who 
believe not, their works are like the mirage 
of the plain: the thirsty imagines it to be 
water, but when he reaches it he finds it is 
nothing. ' ' 

Wherein practically does the mirage consist? 
For one thing, pleasure is sought, but it does 
not satisfy. People go into society to have 
the yearnings of their natures met. They in- 
dulge in the gaieties of social life, but they tire 
of these as they grow older. They find that 
they have been chasing a mirage. In the Sum- 
mer season again, thousands visit the great 
fashionable resorts. They crowd the mountain 
houses, which are being erected in greater and 
greater numbers annually. They camp out in 
the high Sierras, or in the matchless Yosemite 
Valley, where majesty and loveliness are com- 
bined. They throng watering places. They go 
to Saratoga with its single hotels capable of 
accommodating two thousand guests. They 
make the lake shore resound with their merri- 
ment, as they go from point to point on excur- 
sion boats, with bands playing and flags flying. 

They walk the beach of old ocean, and listen 
to its anthem rolled up in the great tidal organ- 
swells of the Almighty. They pour out of city 
and town in long trains in search of quiet nooks 

[43] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

in the country. They penetrate unbroken for- 
ests, and canoe and fish in limpid streams, and 
level their cameras at deer that start up sur- 
prised at their first sight of the human face. 
They patronize ocean liners, and travel from 
country to country all alive with the historic, 
and full of masterpieces of art, both painting 
and sculpture, and abounding in superb natural 
scenery. Why all this movement, and stir! It 
is for pleasure. But in a few weeks all are 
weary of it, and are glad to get back to home 
and regular work. At any rate, they have not 
found permanent satisfaction for their restless 
natures. They have pursued a mirage, so far 
as the meeting of their deeper and their spirit- 
ual needs is concerned. 

Neither does wealth, desirable as this may be 
and is, fill for them the aching void. Their 
ambition is to become rich as Croesus, who, 
when he wanted a picture of his baking woman, 
could afford to have a life-size statue made of 
her in solid gold, and who according to classical 
story could resort to other like extravagances. 
What colossal fortunes men accumulate now- 
a-days! They do become rich as Croesus, and 
richer. They build palatial residences, sur- 
rounded with ample grounds which are beauti- 
ful Edens. They travel in their own private 
railroad car, which is elegant beyond descrip- 
tion. They have their automobiles and their 
yachts, and even airships. Are they happy and 
contented! They are not, and in their sober 

[44] 



The Mirage of the Desert 

moments they endorse the wisdom of the 
proverb, 

' ' Give me neither poverty nor riches ; 
Feed me with the food that is needful for me." 

They may even say with the richest man, of 
whom we are informed in Holy Writ, "Better 
is a handful with quietness, than both the hands 
full with travail and vexation of spirit. ' ' Many 
a millionaire, in the midst of urban heat and 
dust, in the midst of the stress and strain of 
unrelenting and exacting business, recalling 

"An old farm-house with meadows wide, 
And sweet with clover on each side, ' ' 

can still farther say with the poetess, 

' ' O, could I only tread once more 
The field-path to the farm-house door, 

The old, green meadow could I see, 
How happy, happy, happy, 

How happy I should be. " 

As to how superabundant means may be only 
disquieting instead of heart-satisfying finds 
illustration in a tale of the Alhambra, the mem- 
ory of a visit to which still lingers pleasantly 
with me. Among the legends connected with 
this beautiful ruin of Moorish splendor in 
Spain, none is more charming than that of the 
"two discreet statues/ ' as related by Washing- 
ton Irving in his inimitable way. A beggar 
occupied a dilapidated apartment in Granada's 
towered height. He was a little, merry fellow, 
who was the gardener of the place. With his 

[45] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

happy-go-lucky ways lie was a favorite among 
the poverty-stricken inmates of the once glori- 
ous palace and fortress combined. He always 
had his joke, and his guitar helped to diffuse 
merriment. He had never a care. 

But one day his young daughter found a 
carved, black hand, which turned out to be a 
Moorish talisman that gave her admission to 
chambers beneath the Alhambra, where Boab- 
dil, the last of the Moors to reign over Granada, 
held a phantom court, and where from an 
enchanted lady she learned a secret that was 
to make her father wealthy. She had often 
seen the two nymphs of alabaster at the portal 
of the vaults beneath the tower of Comares. 
Her attention was now called to what she had 
never noticed before, to the fact that both 
turned their gaze within the vaulted chambers, 
and were looking at the same point. She was 
informed that if her father some night with her 
help would examine the wall exactly there, he 
would discover treasures which would relieve 
him of the necessity of gardening any more. 
From the eyes of the two statuesque females 
he, when unobserved, drew lines to the point of 
convergence, and marked the precise place on 
the wall, and then eagerly awaited the dark- 
ness. But even the hope of riches spoiled his 
happiness, his quietude of mind. He feared 
that some one else would discover the secret. 
He wished the two statues would look in some 
other direction, and not betray where the 

[46] 



The Mirage of the Desert 

treasures were. Just as if they had not 
been fixing their eyes upon that very spot for 
centuries. 

The former happy but now much perturbed 
gardener was suspicious of every visitor, and 
was sure that every such person might note how 
the two feminine statues were watching the 
enchanted riches. ' ' They are just like all their 
sex," he at last grumbled to himself, "if they 
have not tongues to tattle with, they 11 be sure 
to do it with their eyes." But the two marble 
females, who had guarded the secret ever since 
the expelled Moors hid the treasures there, did 
not betray their trust, and that night when the 
place was opened, two large porcelain jars, 
filled with gold and jewels, when touched by 
the hand of the daughter with her magical 
charm came forth to make the discoverer and 
his family independent for life. But again was 
he disturbed in mind as to a place of safety for 
his sudden riches. He feared robbers in his 
insecure habitation, where formerly he had 
slept peacefully with doors unlocked, He wor- 
ried, he lost his gaiety, and his friends, who 
were not pleased with his anxious looks and 
melancholy ways (which they understood not), 
who left him more and more to his devices, till 
he was lonely and miserable, whereas he once 
had been the life of a considerable circle. Now 
all this, fable though it be, shows that wealth 
does not bring felicity, and may even substitute 
wretchedness. The tale proves this, even 

[47] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

though we do get one more glimpse of Irving 's 
quaint character at Malaga with his coach-and- 
six, living in luxury, and mingling with Span- 
ish grandees. Like others he finally had to part 
with all his possessions. Does wealth satisfy? 
Eventually it all, be it more or less, has to be 
left behind. Fleeting riches are nothing but 
a mirage, they "make themselves wings," as 
Scripture says, and very few comparatively 
attain them at all, for they recede from the 
grasp like the rainbow with its fabled pot of 
gold, and the folly of chasing rainbows we all 
recognize. 

Coveted fame is equally disappointing at the 
last. How soon all except the very greatest, and 
these exceedingly meager in number, are prac- 
tically if not quite forgotten ! How many of the 
emperors of Rome through the centuries can 
the average person name? Some, to be sure, 
like Marcus Aurelius and Constantine, but not 
many. How many of the lettered men of 
Greece? Some, of course, like Homer and 
Plato, and Pindar and Sophocles, but they can 
be counted on the fingers of the two hands. 
How many of the prominent generals belonging 
to so recent and familiar history as that of our 
Eevolutionary War? The long ages of China's 
existence, and of Japan's, and of India's, and 
even of Russia's, are almost a blank in our 
minds. We could not so much as pronounce 
the names of their celebrities. What count- 
less thousands, esteemed celebrated in their day 

[48] 



The Mirage of the Desert 

and generation, at present lie enshrouded in 
oblivion ! 

Visit an old cemetery, and most of the names, 
if they can be read at all on the crumbling or 
weather-beaten stones, stand for nothing after 
the lapse of about a century, and we only know 
that such lived and died, having mingled amid 
such scenes as we do at present. Besides, if 
one does rise to a brief eminence, how unsatis- 
factory it is according to the best testimony! 
Shakespeare well makes Henry the Sixth to 
say in admiration of the shepherd's humble lot : 

"Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! 
Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 
To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, 
Than doth a rich embroidered canopy 
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery ?" 

The winter of time plays havoc with nearly 
every one's fame, as the winter of misfortune 
did with the greatness of the proud minister 
of Henry the Eighth. Verily worldly distinc- 
tion, without spiritual attainment, is a mirage 
alluring on to certain disappointment. 

But when the divine is sought, the mirage 
becomes a pool, becomes springs of water. 
Entirely proper is the seeking of pleasures, 
which however should not be the pleasures of 
sin for a season, or even brief innocent recrea- 
tions and enjoyments, so much as the pleasures 
forevermore. Perfectly right is the pursuit of 
riches, but only as we lay up treasures in 
heaven will the mirage be displaced by the 

[49] . 



Biblical Nature Studies 

real satisfying waters of eternal possessions. 
Wholly legitimate is the desire to live in the 
hereafter, but there is no elixir of immortality 
in the dancing bauble of mere worldly fame; 
we should seek "the blessed and only Poten- 
tate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who 
only," says an apostle, "hath immortality. ' ' 
It is thus that the mirage ceases to smite for 
travellers over life's dreary waste, for those 
who have the life and purpose and spirit of the 
Christ. 

This world in all its various aspects is like 
the ever-promising, yet ever-deceptive, and 
ever-disappointing mirage, but a religious ex- 
perience makes the mirage a cool lake, and the 
glowing sand a blossoming garden. Seeking 
first the kingdom, not pleasure or wealth or 
fame, the weary land then has the shadow 
of a great rock, and the delightful oasis, and 
eventually it shall be clothed throughout with 
verdure and beauty and fruitfulness. The Sa- 
hara of life shall increasingly here and entirely 
hereafter be transformed into the heavenly 
Paradise. Christian faith changes disappoint- 
ment to realization, as she looks farther into 
the future than we are wont to do. Tennyson 
has well said of faith, 

' ' She spies the summer thro ' the winter bud, 
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, 
She hears the lark within the songless egg, 
She finds the fountain where they wail 'd Mirage ! ' ' 

It is after this fashion that the trying, blister- 

[50] 



The Mirage of the Desert 

ing desert gives way to fair, refreshing Beulah 
land, which can be the inheritance of all, and 
which alone is permanent and sonl-satisfying. 

' ' Life has many a pleasant hour, 
Many a bright and cloudless day ; 

Singing bird and smiling flower, 
Scatter sunbeams on our way; 

But the sweetest blossoms grow 

In the land to which we go. ' ' 

The desert will have blossomed as the rose, and 
the mirage will have become a mere memory. 



[51 J 



IV 

THE TREES 



IV 

THE TEEES 

It is a refreshing change to turn from the 
desert to the trees. These have their lessons 
to convey. Shakespeare " finds tongues in 
trees," and we are to listen to them as they 
speak. One of the oldest parables in any lit- 
erature is that in the book of the Judges, where 
the trees are represented as gathered in a sort 
of political convention to choose a king. The 
first to be nominated was the olive, and as the 
shout went up, "Reign thou over us," we can 
imagine the tumultuous applause that must 
have run through the waving branches. But 
the king-elect saw no reason for leaving its 
"fatness," its productive power for good, for 
the doubtful honor of exaltation "to wave to 
and fro over the trees. ' ' The declination caused 
a momentary lull, and then there was the sud- 
den nomination of the fig-tree, and the music 
of ' i Hail to the Chief ' ' must have broken from 
all the excited and leafy boughs. Again was 
there a refusal to cease yielding "sweetness 
and good fruit ' ' for an empty promotion. After 
this there must have been whisperings here and 
there throughout the gathering, till sentiment 
seemed to crystallize once more with the nam- 

[55] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

ing of the vine, and all the trees clapped their 
hands. But this nominee arose and with a 
graceful and sweeping bow likewise refused to 
leave its "new wine," its good cheer for all, 
for the purpose of lording it over the rest. Not 
till the bramble had been nominated, was there 
an eager acceptance of the position, and out of 
it with its power to lacerate came speedily 
destructive i ' fire, ' ' involving all in ruin. 

This was a most striking lesson in democ- 
racy, condemnatory of the ambitious and un- 
principled politician in civic life, of the impe- 
rious and selfish leader in society, and of the 
domineering man or woman, loving to have the 
preeminence, in the church. The modest work- 
ers uniting their various gifts are to be desired 
in preference to the selfishly aspiring. Of 
course there must be those who take the initi- 
ative, and those who must be followers, in every 
movement, and this is right and necessary so 
long as the former regard themselves as acting 
only in a representative capacity. Many are to 
be reproved, because they do not recognize 
their responsibility. 

In the sphere of civics particularly, a good 
man cannot leave his fatness, his wealth, his 
making of money wherewith to serve God and 
man, he says, in order to go and vote. He can- 
not leave "home, sweet home," to go out and 
cast his ballot. He will settle down amid the 
comfort of the domestic circle, and neglect his 
duty as a citizen. He cannot even leave his 

[56] 



The Trees 

pleasures, his pursuit of life's good cheer, to 
go out and deposit a thunderous No, when the 
licensing of the liquor traffic is involved. He 
cannot meet a public trust by so much as taking 
his turn in accepting an elective office for a 
period. The result is, the bad man, the cor- 
rupt citizen, comes to the front, and soon a city 
is torn with contention and strife because of a 
reign of graft and immorality. The bramble is 
always ready to jump into a position where 
there is an opportunity to gain personal ad- 
vantage, and by and by the body politic is lacer- 
ated with thorns, or a community is ravaged, as 
it were, with devastating flames. 

There is another Old Testament scene that is 
very instructive, when the mulberry-trees gave 
a signal for battle, like that stirring one of 
Nelson in a crisis, "England expects every man 
to do his duty. ' ' David carried victory against 
his Philistine enemies, because he heeded this 
divine admonition, "And it shall be, when thou 
hearest the sound of marching in the tops of 
the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir 
thyself. ' ' Not always do the trees speak to us 
of quiet, for sometimes the lively moving of 
their foliage is a summons to us for action. 
Beneath over-arching branches, ours should not 
constantly be dreamy musings, for there are 
times when we should awake to the call of duty. 
We need occasionally to be roused out of repose, 
to be stirred to strenuous endeavor. There is 
a soul agitation, that sometimes is desirable, 

[57] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

leading to right conduct, when Isaiah's words 
shall be fulfilled in our experience. Of a Bibli- 
cal monarch and of those over whom he ruled, 
the prophet said, i i And his heart trembled, and 
the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest 
tremble with the wind. ' ' Devoutly to be wished 
for is the spiritual sensitiveness to divine mov- 
ings therein pictured. 

Getting in still closer touch with our subject, 
it is to be observed that we rightly form real 
attachments for trees. On the farm of my boy- 
hood there was a hill clothed with sugar maples 
to its summit, and there a stately elm towered 
above them all, and outlined its top against the 
sky. My father would come in of an evening 
and remark, "It is a very dark night, for the 
old elm cannot be seen. " In the gloom he 
seemed to miss its companionship, its message 
of cheer and brightness from the top of the 
mountain. There must be something wrong 
with us, if we do not come to love certain trees, 
both for themselves, and because of associa- 
tions that may be very dear. Sluggish must 
be the heart that does not respond to the senti- 
ment of the writer of "Woodman, spare that 
tree." 

• ' When but an idle boy 

I sought its grateful shade ; 
In all their gushing joy 

Here too my sisters played. 
My mother kissed me here: 

My father pressed my hand — 
Forgive this foolish tear, 

But let that old oak stand." 

[58] 



The Trees 

We cannot wonder very much that our an- 
cestors in England, the Druids, worshipped the 
oak, in view of what Dryden says of the same : 

"The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, 
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees; 
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 
Supreme in state — and in three more decays. ' ' 

Surely there is in it, with its nearly thousand 
years of existence, "more abundant life" than 
in man, who perishes after the brief period of 
three score and ten years. Think of the suc- 
cessive human generations that pass away dur- 
ing the lifetime of a single monarch of the 
forest. We can say with Cowper, 

"It seems idolatry with some excuse 
When our forefather Druids in their oaks 
Imagined sanctity. " 

It, however, is not of oak or elm, of maple or 
birch, of pine or fir, that we are specifically to 
speak, but of exclusively Biblical trees. We 
read regarding Solomon, "And he spake of 
trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even 
unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. " 
He made an exhaustive study of forestry. What 
particularly he said about the trees is uncer- 
tain. He may have treated of them under the 
head of natural history, or he may have used 
them to illustrate divine truth. Josephus says, 
"He spake a parable upon every sort of tree, 
from the hyssop to the cedar." This, undoubt- 

[59] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

edly, is the correct conclusion, for though the 
work has been lost, there are in his extant writ- 
ings references to the trees, and in these spirit- 
ual lessons are conveyed. It is he who in a 
proverb compares wisdom to a "tree of life. " 
If then we could have his treatise, we certainly 
would be very much instructed even from a re- 
ligious standpoint. But other sacred writers 
furnish us with suggestions here. 

Take the smallest mentioned, which is little 
more than a shrub, the hyssop. It was used to 
sprinkle the blood of the Paschal lamb upon the 
door-posts of the Israelites, when all Egypt's 
first-born were slain, except in those houses 
which were passed over by the destroying angel 
at the sight of the blood drops. It was also 
used in various rites of purification, and hence 
the Psalmist cries : 

11 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: 
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." 

This cleansing from sin is what every one to- 
day needs. He should be the hyssop to receive 
the precious blood of the spotless Lamb of God, 
and to sprinkle it upon other defiled souls. 
This is the starting-point, the small shrub, the 
hyssop springing out of the wall, and Isaiah 
says, "thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,' ' 
and the foundation stone therein is the Rock of 
Ages, clinging to which the hyssop can sing 
(for we read in the Chronicles, "Then shall the 
trees of the wood sing/') : 

[60] 



The Trees 

1 ' Saviour, more than life to me, 
I am clinging, clinging close to thee; 
Let thy precious blood applied, 
Keep me ever, ever near thy side. ' ' 

So much for the hyssop springing out of the 
wall, for the very commencement of the re- 
ligious life. It is a life of natural helplessness, 
and of clinging faith. 

But one should be more than the clinging 
shrub. He should become fruitful, and the fig- 
tree was specially noted for its fruitfulness. 
To dwell under one's own fig-tree was a favorite 
Scriptural emblem of plenty, of every want sat- 
isfied. It was a tree which yielded several 
crops annually, and under hothouse cultiva- 
tion it has been known to produce eight times a 
year. Very properly, therefore, did Christ 
curse the barren fig-tree, upon which, says 
Mark, "He found nothing but leaves.' ' Very 
appropriately did he say afterward, ' ' From the 
fig-tree learn her parable." What is the les- 
son 1 The solemn and needful warning is given 
in the simple lines, 

"Ah, who shall thus the Master meet, 

And bring but withered leaves? 
Ah, who shall at the Saviour's feet, 
Before the awful judgment-seat 

Lay down for golden sheaves, 
Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves ! ' ' 

One is not merely to cling to Christ for salva- 
tion, like the hyssop springing out of the wall, 
but he is to ripen in character; he is to bear 
fruit, he is to be a fig-tree, he is to be of some 

[611 



Biblical Nature Studies 

use to others. This truth is similarly imaged 
in that well-known picture of the cross rising 
out of tumultuous waters, while a beautiful fe- 
male figure clings to the transverse beam with 
one arm, and with the other rescues another 
person, who is about to sink beneath the waves. 

The olive conveys another lesson. What is it 
that we most of all crave ? It is repose of mind, 
it is quietude of spirit, it is that flower of char- 
acter known as heart 's-ease. Now the olive 
speaks of just this peace and tranquility. We 
talk about extending the olive branch, when 
there is a truce to war, when harmony is re- 
stored, when quiet again reigns. Why is it 
that this tree has such associations? Can it be 
because a dove bore a leaf of it to the ark to tell 
in the mute language of a bird that the flood 
had abated? It is not without significance 
that tradition represents the dove to have in- 
troduced the olive into Greece, carrying a 
branch of it from Phoenicia to the temple of 
Jupiter in Epirus. Thomson in his "Land and 
the Book" says from what he himself had ob- 
served in Palestine, that olive groves are a fa- 
vorite resort of doves: "In them they build 
their nests and rear their young, and there 
may be heard all day long their low, soft cooing, 
in sweet unison with the breeze which whispers 
peace to the troubled and repose to the weary." 
These trees thus give us a perfect picture of 
unshaken calm. , 

But is not the olive subject to tempests? 

[621 



The Trees 

Certainly, for in Job we have a reference to 
casting "off his flower as the olive." There 
are winds which make the blossoms to fall by 
the myriad, until the ground is literally covered, 
but the tree, says another, only turns its "fat- 
ness to those which will mature into fruit." It 
does not utterly succumb to adverse influences. 
Nay, there may be what Isaiah calls the ' i shak- 
ing of an olive-tree," yet the prophet mentions 
"two or three berries in the top of the upper- 
most bough, four or five in the outermost 
branches." The fruit is not all shaken off. 
God does not entirely destroy. He may shake 
the olive by tremendous storms, but it retains 
some of its fruit in the uppermost and outer- 
most branches. It may be pretty thoroughly 
stripped, as Job was who yet could trust though 
slain, but the tempest-swayed olive holds on to 
what fruit it can, until by and by its boughs are 
again at rest, and not entirely denuded. When 
one has made his peace with his Maker, all the 
storms that may sweep over him will leave him 
still trusting, and still bearing fruit. 

The significance of our next tree, the palm, is 
given by the familiar lines, 

1 'Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, — 
The eternal years of God are hers. " 

This speaks of recuperative power found in 
those who may have crushing experiences, but 
who themselves are not crushed. They answer 
to Paul's description, "smitten down, yet not 

[63] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

destroyed. ' ' Says Holy Writ, "The righteous 
shall flourish like the palm-tree. ' ' How does it 
flourish? It grows best by fountains, where it 
multiplies very rapidly. One of the camping- 
places of the Israelites was "where were twelve 
springs of water, and three score and ten palm- 
trees.' ? Referring to the rising of the temple 
at Jerusalem without the sound of axe or ham- 
mer or any iron tool, a poet has said, 

' ' Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung. ' ' 

These trees are tall, and they spring noiselessly 
straight up into the air, and nothing of weight 
or wind can deflect them out of their course, 
can make them otherwise than perfectly up- 
right. An Oriental traveller mentions them 
standing in the plains like "military sentinels, 
with feathery plumes nodding gracefully on 
their proud heads.' ' This tree cannot be 
crushed into crookedness, crushed to earth it 
rises again. It is the very image of triumph 
over obstacles. Having done all, says an 
apostle, we are "to stand/' Longfellow gives 
the same thought in the lines, 

"As the palm-tree standeth so straight and so tall, 
The more the hail beats, and the more the rains fall. ' ' 

The name of that fabled bird which was said 
to come to life from its own ashes was Phoenix, 
which is the Greek word for palm, the name be- 
ing doubtless given in allusion to the fact that 
the tree springs upward in spite of all hin- 
drances. Very fittingly were palm branches 

[64] 



The Trees 

carried in triumphal processions, in the entry of 
the King of kings into Jerusalem. This meant 
victory to the Jews. In this connection there 
is something pathetic in a copper coin which has 
come down to us from the first century. On 
one side is the head of the Emperor Vespasian, 
during whose reign Jerusalem was destroyed 
by Titus. On the other side is the representa- 
tion of a poor female captive, of a Jewess, 
weeping under a palm-tree in sight of her mas- 
ter. The very Jewish symbol of victory was 
thus associated by the cruel Roman with a cap- 
tivity which has lasted through nineteen cen- 
turies. But the palm-tree, rising erect above 
the bent form of the Jewish captive, speaks of 
triumph yet, when according to prophecy "all 
Israel shall be saved." Over every prostrate 
soul to-day, bowed down with sin and sorrow, 
the palm stands and says in the words of Jesus, 
"Look up, and lift up your heads ; because your 
redemption draweth nigh," and eventually 
there comes that triumphant scene in heaven of 
the glorified ■ ' with palms in their hands. ' 7 This 
was the hopeful message to the holy family it- 
self in that dark hour when compelled to flee 
the country by a tyrant's wrath. Beautiful 
among pictures is Correggio's "Flight into 
Egypt." Golden-haired angels put aside the 
branches of a palm sheltering the refugees, and 
smile sunnily through the leaves upon the Ma- 
donna and her child, who must have been 
cheered by the bright and lovely vision. 

[65] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

This to those compelled to wander far from 
home and native land must have been as reas- 
suring as that of Whittier is to us under simi- 
larly trying circumstances, and in the wider and 
more mysterious wanderings to which we may 
be subject through the strange shaping of hu- 
man destinies by an overruling providence. 
The Quaker poet in "The Eternal Goodness" 
most comfortingly says : 

' ' I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care. ' ' 

Ultimately we all can become what the Bible 
terms "cedars of God." It is these that 
Ezekiel describes, not like those of stunted 
growth in the unfavorable climate of the Occi- 
dent, but as they are in their native element, in 
the Orient, where, says the prophet, they are 
' ' exalted above all the trees of the field, ' ' while 
the ' ' great eagle ' ' alights in the l ' top 9 ' thereof. 
These are like the mammoth trees of California, 
like those seen by me near Santa Cruz, or like 
those at Mariposa in the approach to the 
Yosemite. Such were the famed "cedars of 
Lebanon." One of them in our day has been 
known to have a trunk nearly 16 feet in diame- 
ter. By counting the growths, the "annual 
concentric circles," it has been estimated by 
Thomson that some of them may "have been 
growing ever since the Flood." John Muir 

[66] 



The Trees 

tells us of one giant Sequoia in the Sierras 325 
feet high. A colossus of this kind usually does 
not begin to have branches till a height of 150 
feet is reached. The same naturalist of the Pa- 
cific slope refers to one specimen having, four 
feet above the ground, a trunk something over 
35 feet in diameter inside the bark, which itself 
is sometimes two feet thick. He counted the 
yearly wood-rings of some, and found them to 
be more than 4,000 years old. ' l These giants, ' ' 
he declared, though others reduce the period, 
"probably live 5,000 years or more." 

Can we get any adequate conception of the 
age of such a tree? We try historic measure- 
ments. We talk of the landing of the Pilgrims 
in 1620, from which we seem immensely sepa- 
rated in time. We trace our way along till we 
come to the discovery of America by Columbus, 
and we stand awed before the flight of four cen- 
turies. We turn to English history, we recall 
the immortal Cromwell, and James the First 
who gave us the Bible in our long-accepted ver- 
sion ; we remember Henry the Eighth who made 
England independent of Rome, and the Norman 
Conquest passes before our minds. In general 
European affairs we are not forgetful of the 
Reformation which revolutionized Church and 
State. We follow in imagination the thousands 
of Crusaders who poured into the Holy Land. 
We have thus swept over a thousand years, and 
we cannot help being impressed with such a 
stretch of time. And yet a millennium ago our 

[67] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

sequoia or our cedar of Lebanon was not so 
much as nearing old age. 

We proceed farther still toward antiquity. We 
read of Charlemagne and his splendid empire, 
of Mohammedanism in its long series of tri- 
umphs extending over three continents almost, 
of hordes of barbarians rolling down from the 
north and destroying the Roman Empire, of 
Const antine the Great substituting for the im- 
perial eagles the resplendent cross which he 
thought he saw emblazoned in the sky, and we 
come to the birth of Christianity itself and a 
century beyond, when two thousand years have 
been traversed, but our tree then was only in its 
prime. We continue our journey along the 
path of history, and we take in empires, Ro- 
man, Grecian, Persian, and Assyrian. We are 
in the midst of the Punic or Carthaginian wars, 
and we hear the senate chamber at Rome re- 
echoing with Cato's "Carthago delenda est," 
Carthage must be destroyed. We see the cele- 
brated Hannibal, who thundered at the gates 
of the eternal city. We become acquainted 
with Alexander the Great and with Demos- 
thenes, with Solon and the seven wise men of 
Greece, with Socrates and Pericles and Homer. 
We learn about the romantic Cyrus the Great, 
about the Captivity in Babylon, and we pursue 
our course till we come to the reigns of David 
and Solomon, and to the Trojan war with the 
capture of the city by the wooden horse 
crammed with soldiers and admitted within the 

[68] 



The Trees 

gates. Another millennium has fled, and yet our 
cedar or our sequoia even then had been watch- 
ing for a thousand or perhaps two thousand 
years the procession of the centuries. If the 
Creator has endowed an insensible tree with 
life so long, we may be sure that man, made in 
his own image, with an intelligence which has 
accomplished so much, and with longings for 
immortality, is going to be longer-lived. Our 
leaf shall "not wither," we shall be "goodly 
cedars ' ' for ever and evermore. 

We have now spoken of the ' i trees, from the 
cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop 
that springeth out of the wall." What has 
been the effect upon us of our meditative stroll 
in this Scriptural forest ? Fortunate are we if 
it has been as happy as Sidney Lanier has pic- 
tured it to have been on the Lord himself be- 
cause of a similar experience : 

"Into the woods my Master went, 
Clean forspent, forspent; 

Out of the woods my Master went, 
And he was well content. ' ' 

But the most unique tree of all has so far 
been omitted, and has been reserved for men- 
tion last. Says Milton : 

"Amidst them stood the tree of life, 
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit 
Of vegetable gold. " 

This is better characterized in the inspired 
Song of songs as follows : 

[69] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

' ' As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, 
So is my beloved among the sons. 
I sat down under his shadow with great delight, 
And his fruit was sweet to my taste. ' ' 

This is translated the apple tree, but the He- 
brew word, say scholars, is the generic term for 
apple, quince, citron, orange, peach, and so 
forth; thus giving us, as has been said, a "suc- 
cession of blossoms, fruit, and perfume.' ' It 
is all the fruit trees, with which we are familiar, 
thrown and combined into one, into a magnifi- 
cent composite. 

Verily this does surpass ' l all the trees of the 
wood." It must be what John in his Revela- 
tion calls * ' the tree of life, bearing twelve man- 
ner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: 
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing 
of the nations." This must be indeed the 
soul's beloved, must be he who alone is life, 
"who only hath immortality." While we as 
cedars shall be kings, he as the tree of life shall 
be King of kings, and we shall sit under his 
grateful shade, and partake of his pleasant 
fruit, and we shall ever give him praise. The 
Psalmist 's words shall be fulfilled, ' ' Then shall 
all the trees of the wood sing for joy, before 
the Lord." Isaiah's prophecy, too, shall come 
true, ' i The mountains and the hills shall break 
forth . . . into singing, and all the trees 
of the field shall clap their hands." In the 
Paradise above it shall be ours at last to join in 
the leafy chorus, in the new song before the 
throne. 

[70] 



V 

AUTUMN LEAVES 



V 

AUTUMN LEAVES 

The glory of the trees is their foliage, whose 
protection from the hot sun has ever been 
eagerly sought and gratefully enjoyed. At 
Athens the Academy where Plato taught was 
among the olive groves on the banks of the 
Cephissus, and the Lyceum where Aristotle 
lectured was among the plane-trees on the 
Ilissus. Our higher institutions of learning 
now, Harvard on her ' ' yard ' ' and Yale on her 
campus, try to have classic shades that are 
similar. It is in the spring when the leaves 
are thickest and most umbrageous. It is then 
that the birds, says the Psalmist, i i sing among 
the branches. " This is the season of which 
Wordsworth sings : 

"One impulse from a vernal wood 
May teach you more of man, 
Of moral evil and of good 
Than all the sages can. ' ' 

Every one feels the inspiration of what Cole- 
ridge calls "the leafy month of June." Says 
Thomson of "the pleasing spring:" 

' ' Echo the mountains round ; the forest smiles ; 
And every sense, and every heart, is joy." 

The air breathes with fragrance. It is a 

[73] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

time of buttercups and daisies, of apple blos- 
soms and meadow flowers. Nature is waking 
out of sleep. Everything is bursting into new 
life. Birds are nesting. Soft zephyrs kiss the 
earth. The green foliage comes out. Under 
such exhilarating circumstances, we cannot 
help being buoyant and cheerful. But when 
the fall comes, decay is seen on every side. 
The birds are going south. The wild geese give 
forth their plaintive notes, like Tennyson's dy- 
ing swan which i ' loudly did lament, ' ' as 

"The desolate creeks and pools among, 
Were flooded over with eddying song. * ' 

The very breezes, especially on gray days, seem 
to sigh in the tree tops. The leaves become sere 
and yellow, and fall to the ground. The most 
marked difference between the spring and the 
autumn is due to this change in the foliage, 
from which a prophet draws the impressive les- 
son, "we all do fade as a leaf." Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes spoke sadly of the time when he 
should become 

' ' The last leaf upon the tree, ' ' 

and Byron said mournfully, 

' ' My days are in the yellow leaf. ' J 

From another standpoint, however, a jubi- 
lant feeling is indicated by what we term "a 
riot of colors." We often try to secure won- 
drous effects along this line. The greatest dis- 

[74] 



Autumn Leaves 

play of this kind ever seen by me was the dec- 
orative exhibition in Boston, when the return- 
ing hero of Manila Bay rode along, standing in 
his carriage and bowing to solid masses of 
people on this side and on that, while a con- 
tinuous roar of applause marked his slow ad- 
vance. The city was ablaze with colored 
lights, with illuminated flagships or Olympias, 
with painted scenes of the whole historic fleet, 
with the American eagle flying from its beak the 
stars and stripes in brilliant fire-works. Even 
in daylight streets and buildings were bright 
with rainbow hues. Flags floated from win- 
dows. Bunting of red, white and blue hung in 
graceful festoons everywhere. For whom was 
all this gorgeous make-up? For the now illus- 
trious George Dewey, who on that May morn- 
ing of 1898 sailed into a Philippine harbor, and 
in a forenoon without the loss of a ship or a 
man annihilated the Spanish fleet there shel- 
tered and protected both by her own guns and 
by powerful shore batteries, though to no pur- 
pose as against the superb daring and skill of 
our American naval commander, whom as a 
consequence all delighted to honor on that oc- 
casion of his return. But a more magnificent 
display than that for this distinguished mariner 
is that of all nature every fall for every hum- 
blest person. Colors more lavish than the art 
of man can spread over a scene are those of the 
autumn over entire landscapes that are for us 
all made radiant. The leaves which burn with 

[75] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

mingled fires, over which have been dashed by 
the heavenly artist such manifold colors, speak 
to us of joy and victory. We are reminded of 
what Moses witnessed at Mount Horeb. Every 
shrub aglow with color is a repetition of the 
miracle of the burning bush which he saw, all 
aflame yet not consumed. There is here the 
brightness not of the destructive fire but of the 
flame immortal in a divine luminosity. It is 
what can be characterized as a blaze of glory 
and triumph, and the thought is only that of 
gladness. 

But in a different frame of mind we see the 
sadness of it all, of the leaves fairly showered 
down. Driving once from Florence to the ad- 
jacent heights of Fiesole, there was pointed out 
to me the locality made famous by these lines 
of Milton in his Paradise Lost : 

' ' Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
High overarched embower. " 

We are taught here an opposite lesson, that we 
live our little life, and that for a while all is 
fair. But soon there comes the fading, and the 
withering; there comes the fate which Daniel 
tells us was decreed for Nebuchadnezzar in the 
midst of that monarch's prosperity: "Hew 
down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake 
off his leaves, and scatter his fruit. ' ' 

This Oriental ruler of splendid fame is not 
the only one, who has thus been made to feel the 
vanity of life. Wolsey's oft-quoted soliloquy 

[76] 



Autumn Leaves 

on fallen greatness, as given in Shakespeare, 
furnishes out of the personal experience of that 
celebrated Englishman a striking commentary 
on Daniel's prophecy regarding Nebuchadnez- 
zar 's end. Says the great Cardinal : 

1 1 This is the state of man : today he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hopes; tomorrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him: 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost; 
And, — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a-ripening, — nips his root, 
And then he falls, as I do. " 

Frosted leaves, blasted hopes, that in one sense 
is the language of Autumn. 

How soon we begin to fade ! We no sooner 
come to our best, than decay sets in. We are 
fast passing away. In the springtime of life 
there is only hopefulness, but as we advance in 
age there comes a tinge of sadness, for we real- 
ize that our leaf is fading, and that it will soon 
fall. We rapidly mature in years, till we drop 
like the leaves. Such is our destiny according 
to the irrevocable laws of nature. Like autumn 
in the natural world is that in the human realm, 
except that in the latter the falling leaf is con- 
tinuous. We are familiar with the song of the 
landing of the Pilgrims by Mrs. Hemans, 

"The breaking waves dashed high 
On a stern and rock-bound coast. ' ' 

Still more strikingly has she said, 

"Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the North- wind 's breath, 

And stars to set; — but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death ! ' ' 

[77] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

The generations follow one another in quick 
succession. One of Homer's heroes in the Iliad 
has most graphically set forth our mortality in 
lines which have been the admiration of cen- 
turies : 

"Like the race of leaves 
Is that of humankind. Upon the ground 
The winds strew one year's leaves; the sprouting grove 
Puts forth another brood, that shoot and grow 
In the spring season. So it is with man: 
One generation grows while one decays." 

The falling leaf, however, speaks a various 
language. It testifies farther to the fearful- 
ness of coming to our end without the Christian 
hope. Souls should tremble at the dread pros- 
pect of drawing near to eternity. We read in 
Leviticus, "The sound of a driven leaf shall 
chase them." There is such a thing as being 
haunted by a vague and uncomfortable fear of 
the future, by the dramatist's "dread of some- 
thing after death. " If one is alone in an un- 
broken forest, which he knows to be full of 
wild beasts, and especially in the stillness of the 
midnight hour, he is startled by the fluttering 
leaf. Says a Scottish poet : 

"For now the leaf 
Incessant rustles from the mournful grove; 
Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, 
And slowly circles through the waving air." 

The dry leaf, blown toward one with the pe- 
culiar crackling noise of autumn, might easily 
frighten him into flight, and he would thus be 
chased by the "sound of a driven leaf." 

[78] 



Autumn Leaves 

Now there is no place where a person will be 
so much alone and in a night so dark, as in the 
shadowy vale. There fears and doubts often 
start up like rustling leaves to disturb the soul's 
composure. We sometimes say with Bryant: 

' * The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, 

Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and 

sere. 
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie 

dead; 
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.' ' 

But sadder than the fall of nature is the au- 
tumn of a life, which has been blasted by sin, 
till the air is full of the flying leaves of guilty 
memories which have the taint of a moral blight. 
To persons of such lives there is frequently sent 
"a faintness into their heart,' ' as the inspired 
writer says, while he adds the significant clause, 
"and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase 
them. " The whirling autumn foliage speaks 
of sad bewilderment at life's close. We all 
must fade, but we need not have at the last this 
spirit of fearfulness. 

The leaves inculcate a further lesson. They 
speak of divine comfort and protection. Job 
asks, "Wilt thou harass a driven leaf!" The 
patriarch meant to say, that the Father's ten- 
derness was such as not to injure in the least 
the crisp leaf even, blown hither and thither by 
the fall winds. So fragile a thing as that is the 
object of his loving care. Much more does he 
appreciate our frailties : 

[79] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

1 ' For he knoweth our frame ; 
He remembereth that we are dust." 

The promise is, "A bruised reed shall he not 
break.' ' He does let the storm come, and 
does let it sweep round us and over us with 
such force, that we are as helpless before the 
terrific gale, as the autumn leaf before the 
wintry blast. But the Almighty does not 
forsake us in the tempest. He is in the 
midst of it, guarding us with infinite compas- 
sion, and we are perfectly safe, for he does not, 
we are assured, "harass a driven leaf." Not 
a sparrow falls to the ground without his notice. 
He throws shelter around the falling leaf, mak- 
ing it descend softly and with scarcely a flutter 
to its resting place. He likewise takes care of 
the trusting spirit 

1 ' In every high and stormy gale. ' ' 

The Fall foliage again points to something 
beyond the present, if there is an inner princi- 
ple of life. Isaiah refers to trees "whose stock 
remaineth, when they are felled, ' 9 such are the 
words of the prophet who continues, "so the 
holy seed is the stock thereof. ' ' The marginal 
reading is, "whose substance is in them, when 
they cast their leaves; so the holy seed is the 
substance thereof. ' ' Trees may be felled, may 
have their branches lopped off, and certainly 
may lose their leaves, and yet not be really 
killed. They are not dead, for they sprout and 
leaf again the next summer. In the summer- 

[80] 



Autumn Leaves 

land of heaven, those persons, who have in them 
the holy seed, who have in them the substance 
of spiritual vitality, though sadly stripped here 
below of boughs and foliage, become up there 
trees of life, with branches renewed, and with 
leaves that never wither. In other words, the 
Autumn with its apparent deadness may contain 
at the same time the promise of life to come. 
As Job says, 

' ' There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout 

again, 
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, 
And the stock thereof die in the ground; 
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, 
And put forth boughs like a plant. " 

So will it be with those who have within 
them eternal life. The autumn does not harm 
such, " whose substance is in them, when they 
cast their leaves,' ' whose immortal spirit 
abides, when they shuffle off this mortal coil. 
' ' The trees of the Lord, ' ' to use an expression 
of the Psalmist, are sure to leaf and bloom 
again in the sweet fields of Eden. So that in 
one sense the fading leaf is only a sign of ripe- 
ness, suggestive of decay to be sure, but also 
of a more glorious future. 

There is a similar thought in the Scriptural 
lines, 

i l Thou shalt come to the grave in a full age, 
Like as a shock of corn cometh in its season. ' ' 

That is, there is the ripeness of autumn. The 

[81] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

falling leaf is not so dreary, when the tree it- 
self is not dead, whose substance is in it, when 
it casts its leaves. Coupled with the melan- 
choly is the comfort of autumn, whose "days 
fill one with pleasant sadness," said Henry 
Ward Beecher, who went on to observe, "How 
sweet a pleasure is there in sadness ! It is not 
sorrow ; it is not despondency ; it is not gloom ; 
it is one of the moods of joy. At any rate I am 
very happy, and yet it is sober, and very sad 
happiness. It is the shadow of joy upon my 
soul. ' ' 

Bryant, too, speaks of these mingled feelings 
produced in man's heart by transfigured nature : 

"For his gayer hours 
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 
And eloquence of beauty; and she glides 
Into his darker musings, with a mild 
And healing sympathy, that steals away 
Their sharpness ere he is aware. " 

Longfellow also speaks of "a sober gladness," 
which he portrays in lines we never tire of 
quoting : 

' ' There is a beautiful spirit breathing now 

Its mellow richness on the clustered trees, 

And, from a beaker full of richest dyes, 

Pouring new glory on the autumn woods. 
****** 

' ' O what a glory doth this world put on 
For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth 
Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks 
On duties well performed, and days well spent! 
For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves, 
Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teachings. 
He shall so hear the solemn hymn that Death 
Has lifted up for all, that he shall go 
To his long resting-place without a tear." 

[82] 



Autumn Leaves 

He shall be garnered above, because his charac- 
ter will have fully developed. He shall come 
to his end like ripened shock of corn, like ma- 
tured autumn leaf. He shall be like him of 
whom Dryden sang : 

' ' Of no distemper, of no blast he died, 
But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long, 
Even wondered at because he dropped no sooner. ' ' 



[83] 



VI 

TREASURIES OF THE SNOW 



VI 

TREASURIES OF THE SNOW 

Regularly succeeding the autumn is the win- 
ter, which some are disposed to regard as an 
alien realm, with no suggestion of God and 
goodness, but only of what is bad and unde- 
sirable. We feel some sympathy with the 
Greeks, who had the desolate and forbidding 
kingdom presided over by Boreas, whom they 
represented to be surly, blowing his horn which 
expelled chilling, northern blasts. Even Thom- 
son, who generally saw the divine in all the 
seasons, said of Polar regions, 

"Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court; 
And through his airy hall the loud misrule 
Of driving tempest is forever heard: 
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath ; 
Here arms his winds with all-subduing frost; 
Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows, 
With which he now oppresses half the globe. ' ' 

But this poet saw another side to the matter, 
when he pictured the pure joyousness of the 
snowy season, as he portrayed a farmer going 
forth after the following fashion : 

' ' His dog attends him. Close behind his heel 
Now creeps he slow, and now with many a frisk, 
Wide-scampering, snatches up the drifted snow 
With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout; 
Then shakes his powdered coat and barks for joy." 

[87] 



Biblical Nature Studies 
All hearts respond to the poetic sentiment, 

"Ringing, swinging, dashing they go 
Over the crest of the beautiful snow. " 

But of something deeper than this must the 
snow speak in view of a question which Job 
asks, namely, "Hast thou entered the treas- 
uries of the snow?" It was from the ^Eolian 
cave that Grecian mythology represented the 
winds to rush forth. Scripture gives a similar 
idea, when it says of God, "He bringeth forth 
the wind out of his treasuries." The concep- 
tion seems to be that of a vast storehouse, from 
whose chambers the blasts are expelled. The 
patriarch is equally pictorial in his question. 
He may have imagined something like the crys- 
tal palace which Montreal sometimes has had, a 
splendid structure of clear ice, built of block 
upon block of frozen snow and water, and, when 
lighted by electrical appliances, and when filled 
with the wealth and fashion of the Canadian 
city, presenting a fairylike scene in its gorgeous 
interior. 

What was in the mind of the sacred writer! 
He may have conceived of regions of perpetu- 
al snow, like Greenland's "icy mountains," of 
which we sing with missionary enthusiasm, or 
like the highest summits of the Alps, where ava- 
lanches are sometimes set in motion by so little 
a thing as the concussion or vibration of air 
caused by the sound of a human voice in the 
mountain solitude; was he calling attention to 

[88] 



Treasuries of the Snow 

any such significant fact? He may have had 
before him a scene like that in Whittier's 
"Snow-Bound:" 

' ' We cut the solid whiteness through, 
And, where the drift was deepest, made 
A tunnell walled and overlaid 
With dazzling crystal." 

He may have understood that the snow falls 
in perfectly formed crystals of almost endless 
variety; by inspiration he may have known 
what has been revealed to modern science by 
microscopic examination ; he may have been try- 
ing to stimulate the mind of man to pry into 
these charming secrets of nature, and to ap- 
preciate the delicate, snowy gems. Had he ever 
witnessed the phenomena of red and green 
snow, occasionally observed in certain altitudes 
Alpine and Arctic, and was he mystified by what 
is now recognized as vegetable organisms color- 
ing the snow, the red and green being, we are 
informed, "one and the same plants in differ- 
ent stages of growth, the green being probably 
the riper ; ' ' was it by such strange phenomena 
that he was struck? He may have had the 
thought of the author of today, who writes in- 
terestingly of the various forms of snow under 
the fascinating title of ' ' Cloud Crystals. ' ' He 
could not have heard of snow a mile and a half 
deep, over which depth Lieutenant Peary, in a 
lecture once listened to by me, said he believed 
he had walked in his explorations about the 
North Pole which he finally discovered. Per- 
haps Job could have said with Longfellow : 

[89] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

1 ' Out of the bosom of the Air, 

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, 
Over the woodlands brown and bare, 
Over the harvest-fields forsaken, 
Silent, and soft, and slow 
Descends the snow. ' ' 

It is quite certain that the patriarch would have 
watched with interest the transformation pic- 
tured by another poet : 

' * Through the hushed air the whitening shower descends, 
At first thin wavering; till at last the flakes 
Fall broad and wide and fast, dimming the day 
With a continual flow. The cherished fields 
Put on their winter robe of purest white. " 

He would have been fascinated at the sight of 
what President Hitchcock of Amherst College 
once pictured after this manner in a lecture on 
the ' ' Coronation of Winter : ' ' "If the twigs of 
every tree and shrub and spire had been liter- 
ally covered with diamonds of the purest water, 
and largest known size, say an inch in diameter, 
they would not, I am sure, have poured upon 
the eye in the sunlight a more dazzling 
splendor. ' ' 

Ceasing from farther conjecture, we come to 
what we know was originally being set forth by 
the patriarch in his suggestive question. He 
was greatly afflicted, physically, in that he was 
one mass of painful sores ; pecuniarily, in that 
he had lost all his property ; and worst of all his 
whole family had been swept away by sudden 
death, while his pretended friends who came 
with their consolations proved to be "miser- 
able comforters.' ' As a consequence his faith 

[90] 



Treasuries of the Snow 

in an overruling providence was put to a se- 
vere test. He could not comprehend God's 
moral government. He could not sound its 
mysterious depths. Well, what if he could not? 
It was not his to know but to believe, not his to 
rebel but to submit. That was the lesson finally 
taught him so impressively out of the whirl- 
wind. God recounted the mysteries of nature, 
from "the cluster of the Pleiades' ' to the "wil- 
lows of the brook ;" from the horse whose neck 
was clothed with "the quivering mane" to the 
sea monster making "the deep to boil like a 
pot;" and, among the things mentioned, was 
the snow, and Job was asked if he had a clear 
comprehension of that. Had he entered its 
treasuries, did he understand the secret of its 
formation and descent? Now if he was ignor- 
ant of one of the most common of natural phe- 
nomena, as he was, how could he expect to 
fathom the mysteries of the divine purpose? 

When we are staggered by God's dealings 
with the children of men, when we cannot see 
why there should be such affliction and suffering 
on earth, we are not to murmur, but we are to 
accept with meekness what has been divinely 
decreed. That is one of the spiritual lessons 
conveyed by the snow, into whose treasuries we 
have not entered any more than into the secrets 
of God. The Biblical assurance, that all things 
work together for good, bringing to the humble 
and devout "an eternal weight of glory," 
should be sufficient. Simple faith, and not sus- 

[91] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

picious questioning, should mark our attitude 
toward the Omniscient. It is ours not to com- 
plain but to trust. 

But the snow has other lessons ; we have yet 
seen only one of the many sides of the crystal. 
Probably all have had the experience of Job 
in unsatisfactory earthly friendships, human 
sympathy failing in the time of greatest need. 
In illustration of this he says: 

"My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, 
As the channel of brooks that pass away; 
Which are black by reason of the ice, 
And wherein the snow hideth itself: 
What time they wax warm, they vanish; 
When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. ' ' 

That is to say, his friends were like a mountain 
brook, making a great bubbling noise in the 
spring when swollen by dissolving snow, but 
in the heat of summer the uncertain stream 
dries up. Exactly thus mere human friendship 
will disappoint at the last. It may be refresh- 
ing enough in the springtime of life, but when 
we are smitten and scorched by summer heat, 
when we are called upon to go through some 
terrible ordeal, some conflict of soul, some great 
spiritual struggle, then the sympathy of those 
about us, even if manifested, does not satisfy. 
It is good so far as it goes, but it fails us just 
where we need it most, to set us at rest with 
our Creator. At that point it vanishes like the 
brook wherein is snow, being exceedingly evan- 
escent. The spring freshet of brief earthly 
friendship is not what we want, but the last 

[92] 



Treasuries of the Snow 

favor of God, the peace which passeth under- 
standing, which floweth like a river full and 
deep to all eternity. 

And yet, to take a step in advance, human 
friendship is not to be lightly esteemed. It has 
its value, and is capable of accomplishing much, 
when it has the quality of Christian faithful- 
ness. There is another side of the crystal which 
we are examining through the microscope of 
Scripture in the proverb which says : 

' ' As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, 
So is a faithful messenger to them that send him; 
For he refresheth the soul of his masters. " 

A cooling drink is refreshing to the hot and 
weary harvester. It would seem from this that 
ice water was an ancient luxury. At least in 
the age of Solomon, there was the cold of snow 
in the harvest-field. Like such a draft of water 
to the laborer, is the faithful gospel messenger, 
who is always found in his place, who can be 
depended upon for any designated duty. Of 
such material are those who in every Church 
are called the faithful few. Unless necessarily 
detained, they are invariably present in God's 
house to worship, helping to give the inspira- 
tion of numbers. They are regularly there to 
cheer the possibly flagging spirit of the leader. 
They rally round him with warm hearts and 
willing hands, with earnest prayer and active 
service. They are always ready with their 
testimonies, with their inspiring messages, with 
their glad tidings, with their words fitly spoken 



Biblical Nature Studies 

to do good everywhere. They may not be able 
to say or to do much, but they do not drop out 
of the ranks, and they do not excuse themselves 
from all work, because they may possess only 
the single talent. They use what they have. 
They hold up the hands of their Moses whoever 
he may be. They perhaps speak a solitary 
word of encouragement to some fainting soul, 
they give a stranger a friendly greeting, and 
they have done no great thing, but they shall 
not lose their reward, for they have shown the 
praiseworthy quality of faithfulness, they have 
given ' ' the cup of cold water, ' ' which the Lord 
very properly commended, for 

1 ' As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, 
So is a faithful messenger. ' ' 

There is needed more of such Christian faith- 
fulness to revive drooping spirits, to infuse 
fresh courage into those bearing the chief re- 
sponsibility, into those who are weary and heavy 
laden, who are well-nigh overcome by the heat 
of the day, by trial and temptation. There is 
too little of religious helpfulness in the world. 
We go on our own way, bearing our own bur- 
dens and carrying our own sorrows, and too 
rarely speaking of the comforts of the gospel 
and of the refreshing promises. We too inter- 
mittently utter the good cheer which is so help- 
ful, we do not as we should simply drop our 
word here and there. 

But will the little that we can say have any 
effect 1 ? The answer to that question turns to 

[94] 



Treasuries of the Snow 

us another side of the crystal which we are con- 
sidering. Will any feeble words of ours spoken 
for the Master avail aught? What says the 
snow? Isaiah replies, "As the rain cometh 
down, and the snow from heaven, and return- 
eth not thither, but watereth the earth, and 
maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed 
to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall 
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : 
it shall not return unto me void. ' ' We are all 
aware that the rain causes the earth to produce, 
but does the snow have a similar influence on 
the soil? That is what is implied by the 
prophet. The farmer, too, testifies that better 
crops generally follow a winter, wherein the 
ground has been heavily mantled with snow. 
Cyclopaedias state that the earth is thus pro- 
tected, being kept warmer, and vegetation is 
not killed by excessive freezing. So that it is 
an agricultural and scientific as well as Scrip- 
tural fact, that not only rain but snow falls to 
some purpose. 

Likewise a word uttered for Christ is not lost. 
It may seem cold as snow, but there is the 
warmth of heaven in it, and when it falls on 
the heart, it makes that spiritual soil soft and 
fruitful, and sooner or later there come the 
results, the summer harvests. We may have to 
say with the sacred poet, 

' ' Weak is the effort of my heart, 
And cold my warmest thought, " 

but through that natural coldness of ours the 

[95] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

fire from above can be conducted. A prism of 
ice can be made to focalize the sun's rays with 
such power as to burn the object beneath, at 
a definite point where the beams are concen- 
trated, concentrated even by a cold medium. 
Thus it is with the word uttered for the Lord. 
It is like the snow, whose coldness seems un- 
suited to impart warmth, but it warms never- 
theless. We may be very prisms of ice in com- 
parison with what we should be, "cold our 
warmest thought/' but if we only catch and 
transmit the rays of the Sun of righteousness, 
warmth will come out of coldness, hearts will 
feel the divine heat sent through us as 
instrumentalities. 

We must not forget, however, that we our- 
selves need to renew our spiritual strength. We 
personally should go to the fountain of all sup- 
ply. Are we drinking of the living waters! 
We turn the snow crystal for another view of 
the matter. It is Jeremiah who says, "Shall 
the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the 
field? or shall the cold waters that flow down 
from afar be dried up? For my people have 
forgotten me." Lebanon was covered with 
snow the year round, and down this mountain 
dashed fresh, sparkling water, cold as the snow 
from which it melted, and it leaped unceasingly 
from under the rock of the field. Will this ever 
fail? asks the prophet. Certainly not, and no 
more will the Almighty, whom yet people for- 
get. They hew out for themselves "cisterns, 

[96] 



Treasuries of the Snow 

broken cisterns that can hold no water,' ' for- 
saking the "fountain of living waters," for- 
saking the smitten Rock of Ages whence gush 
the never failing streams. They abandon the 
cool waters of life that flow down from afar, 
proceeding clear as crystal out of the throne, 
and "seek their happiness," another has said, 
' ' in channels of their own digging. ' ' It is folly 
to try to find all our enjoyment in the fleeting 
pleasures of earth or in its equally transient 
possessions. These do not satisfy our deepest 
nature, our thirst of soul. We need to drink 
from the "wells of salvation," artesian wells, 
fed not by the watershed of any earthly range 
of hills, blue or otherwise, but of the "green 
hill far away." We need to go directly to 
Mount Zion, from which issues a perennial river 
of snow-cold water, which is to make glad the 
city above forever. We are to follow this to 
its fountain head beyond the sea of glass, where 
it starts under the rainbow that is like unto 
emerald. The cisterns which we are hewing 
down here below will soon all be broken, if they 
are not already failing us, and we cannot seek 
too soon i ' the cold waters that flow down from 
afar, " as it were, from ' i the snow of Lebanon. ' ' 
But one may feel unworthy to come to such 
purity. He may be conscious of guilt. What 
light does the snow crystal flash upon us here I 
It is Job again who says, 

' 1 1 know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. 
I shall be condemned; 

[97] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

Why then do I labor in vain? 

If I wash myself with snow water, 

And make my hands never so clean. ' 9 

There may be all the cleansing qualities of the 
softest water, of melted snow, but even that 
cannot remove some stains. What says Lady 
Macbeth? "Out, damned spot! out, I say! * * * 
who would have thought the old man to have 
had so much blood in him? * * * will these 
hands ne'er be clean? * * * Here's the smell 
of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will 
not sweeten this little hand. ' ' Macbeth himself 
cried out in despair, 

' ' Will all great Neptune 's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand ? ' ' 

She had said, "A little water clears us of this 
deed," but she soon learned her mistake. She 
could have said with Job, 

"I shall be condemned, 

****** 

If I wash myself with snow water. ' ' 

The stains of sin are indelible, and cannot be 
removed even by snow water. 

Nevertheless there need not be hopelessness. 
We turn the crystal once more, and we get the 
happiest effect of any yet, there is the radiance 
of divine pardon. We read in Holy Writ, 
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith 
the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow/ 7 We can through 
penitence have the abundant pardon, which both 
forgives and forgets, which makes our record 

[98] 



Treasuries of the Snow 

clean, and gives us the white robes of right- 
eousness. With what force the question recurs, 
' 'Hast thou entered the treasuries of the 
snow?" There is this sweetest of all lessons, 
this divinest of all secrets, that we can be 
washed whiter than snow by cleansing grace. 



[99] 



VII 

BY THE SEA 



VII 

BY THE SEA 

Some prefer the mountains, while others 
choose the ocean. A combination of both was 
for fifteen seasons mine at Southwest Harbor 
on Mt. Desert. This celebrated island resort, 
with its harbors of Southwest and Northeast 
and Seal and Bar, is unique in that directly 
from the salt water rise the everlasting hills. 
There are also ponds and lakes easily accessible 
to visitors. Then the particular cottage, where 
the writer was annually domiciled, had the sur- 
roundings of the quiet country, with a green 
meadow sloping down to the tree-fringed shore. 
There was the humming of bees on shrubbery 
at the door. There was the low, rhythmic mur- 
mur of insect life. There was the sound of 
human voices here and there across the fields. 
There was the clatter of the mowing machine 
on the land, and there was the swish of the 
water cut by passing steamer, or gallant sail- 
boat, or stately yacht. There was the cawing 
of the crow. There was the ringing challenge 
of the chanticleer at a sufficient distance to lend 
enchantment, the " cock's shrill clarion' ' some- 
times coming clear over from Northeast, a mile 
or more across the water, while his feminine 

[103] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

partner in business cackled her assertive claims 
as to the choice contribution she was making 
for the table of summer boarders. There was 
the strident salute of the white sea-gull, wing- 
ing its way gracefully along against a back- 
ground of dark firs toward the Duck Islands. 
There was the protesting chatter of the squir- 
rel, objecting to your hammock in the edge of 
the woods. There was the sweet melody of the 
song sparrow, and there was the evening matin 
of robin redbreast, these being surpassed only 
by the musical bobolink of New York State, and 
perhaps by California's meadow lark with its 
liquid notes and the mocking bird with its rol- 
licking harmonies continuing often into the 
night. All such country and seashore sounds 
were a delight to the ear, and we could under- 
stand why those Trojan soldiers, of whom Eu- 
ripides tells us, stopped in the early morning 
to listen to the nightingale singing on the banks 
of the Simois, and to the bleating of a flock of 
sheep on the top of Mt. Ida, and to a shepherd's 
pipe sending forth its strains on the dewy air. 

With every thing of this kind the Master 
was pleased. He even called attention to the 
brooding fowl, the clucking hen, calling her 
young under her wings. He loved the moun- 
tains, and more than once retired to their rest- 
ful solitude. He passed thirty years of his life 
at Nazareth, which itself was at a considerable 
altitude. From the summit of the hill on whose 
slopes the village was built, there was a widely 

[104] 



By the Sea 

extended view. To the north was snow-capped 
Hermon, to the east Tabor verdant to the top, 
to the west the bine Mediterranean with white 
sails, and to the sonth the fertile plain of Es- 
draelon. But of such fair and sublime scenes 
Christ at length took leave. ' ' And leaving Naz- 
areth," says the record, "he came and dwelt 
in Capernam, which is by the sea. ' ' This lake 
of Gennesaret was henceforth to be his favorite 
resort. Often was he to stroll down to the 
water's edge. He went on missionary tours, 
but he regularly returned to the seaside. There 
he found his first disciples, mending and wash- 
ing their nets. There he called Matthew the 
publican. On Galilee's billows he slept peace- 
fully, while all others were frightened at the 
violence of the storm that arose. From a boat 
rocking on its rippling surface, he preached to 
the multitude on the shore. On its beach one 
of his appearances after his resurrection took 
place. He was thoroughly at home "by the 
sea." 

There are those of dull soul who catch no 
inspiration, as he did, from nature, and from 
that finest manifestation of it as seen in the 
ocean. When Wordsworth and his sister Doro- 
thy, who were as inseparable as Charles and 
Mary Lamb, — when they and Coleridge were 
enjoying the beauties of nature in the since 
famous Lake district of England, they were 
suspected by the country people there of being 
traitors or smugglers or perhaps lunatics. The 

[105] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

poet and his sister were actually compelled on 
this account to change their abode, the owner 
of the house they had rented refusing to let 
them have it any longer. As evidence against 
Wordsworth, one of the villagers said, "We 
have all met him tramping away toward the 
sea. Would any man in his senses take all that 
trouble to look at a parcel of water?" What 
lack there is in persons who can see in the 
mighty ocean only "a parcel of water." It is 
like a nation seeing in a solemn treaty only ' c a 
scrap of paper." As has been said in another 
connection, "Breathes there a man with soul 
so dead." 

Even Byron of irreligious mind could say 
appreciatively, 

' ' There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore, " 

while also he saw in the boundless deep an 
"image of eternity," and likewise a vast and 
"glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
glasses itself." One can hardly express the 
feelings that surge through the breast in the 
presence of the expansive ocean. He involun- 
tarily exclaims with Tennyson, 

11 Break, break, break, 

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 
The thoughts that arise in me." 

How much of mystery the ocean suggests! 
One thinks of the deluge described by the Bible, 

[106] 



By the Sea 

of lost Atlantis which Plato says was located 
out in the Atlantic beyond the pillars of Her- 
cules, and which was said to have been sub- 
merged with all its wicked inhabitants. One 
recalls that oldest version of the flood first 
deciphered in 1913 from exceedingly minute 
characters on a tablet only seven inches square. 
This is now owned bv the University of Perm- 
sylvania, and it dates back at least to the time 
of Hammurabi and of Abraham about 2200 
years before Christ, and perhaps 400 years 
earlier still, thus antedating by 1500 to 2000 
years the account of the catastrophe found in 
the excavated library of Assurbanipal at Nin- 
eveh in the seventh century before our era, and 
revealed to the modern world by George Smith 
in the last century. To such musings does the 
rolling deep give rise regarding cataclysmic 
happennings millenniums ago, as witnessed by 
writings sacred, classic and Oriental. 

One wonders again if the theory of some is 
correct, that the configuration of continents 
and mountain ranges is such as to indicate, 
that the Pacific Ocean now covers the original 
dry land on which Adam and Eve were placed, 
and upon which the race was started on its 
career. Then there is the Polar Sea, is it open 
or is it frozen solid? To determine that many 
have gone on voyages where the suffering from 
hunger has been such, that human beings have 
cut the flesh from their dead fellows for bait 
with which to catch shrimps in Arctic waters, 

[107] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

until finally Peary has solved the mystery in 
the discovery of the North Pole. 

A former President of Boston University, 
Dr. Warren, has started another inquiry by 
writing a book to prove that the North Pole is 
where the Garden of Eden was. The flaming 
sword, appointed by Jehovah forever to hinder 
reentrance into this Paradise, was the girdle of 
perpetual snow and ice that so long blocked 
progress northward, and that henceforth must 
always prevent tropical, Edenic conditions 
there. With such thoughts trooping through 
the mind, one can say with Longfellow: 

tl Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me 
As I gaze upon the sea, 
All the old romantic legends, 

All my dreams come back to me. ' ' 

We cannot help querying, if the most fanciful 
ideas may not contain more of truth than we 
sometimes imagine. 

The ocean has not yet yielded up all its 
secrets. It still awakens inquiry, as it did when 
Columbus sailed forth on his apparently fool- 
hardy explorations, which after all turned out 
so successfully, in the enlargement of knowl- 
edge, in the discovery of continents, in the open- 
ing up of regions to provide comfortable homes 
for the crowded millions of the old world, and 
in the finding of islands ultimately to become the 
possession of a great nation that was to grow 
up on the western hemisphere, and that eventu- 
ally was to humiliate the Spanish government 

[108] 



By the Sea 

which sent the discoverer forth. What further 
disclosures regarding the briny deep are to be 
made to those having the inquiring spirit of the 
Genoese mariner? Scientists, with their deep 
sea dredging, have not yet revealed all of the 
ocean depths. They inform us that it covers 
nearly three-fourths of the surface of the globe, 
leaving only a little over one-fourth of real 
earth, and they of course have not explored 
thoroughly such a mass of water. 

With all our increased light on ancient Nep- 
tune's realm, we continue to feel awed in the 
presence of the still recognized mysteries of the 
ocean. We realize with Job that only God 
understands all, and that his knowledge alone 
is perfect. We can almost hear the Almighty's 
challenge to the patriarch, thrown down like- 
wise to each of us, 

"Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? 
Or hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep?'* 

In other words, the ocean impresses us with our 
ignorance and littleness, and with the greatness 
and wisdom of God. It seems to tell us that we 
are finite, and that he is infinite. In short, it 
stirs within us religious emotions and senti- 
ments. 

With so much in general, we will now walk 
along the shore for different views, that will 
suggest more specific lessons. We cannot tarry 
long at any one point, we must be brief in our 
reflections. 

Note for one thing how the ocean heaves and 

[109 1 



Biblical Nature Studies 

rolls. It rarely is quiet, and in fact never is. 
It seems filled with the very spirit of unrest. 
It seems like a great, panting monster imbued 
with life, and Byron, you recollect, talks about 
laying his hand on the mane of the huge crea- 
ture. As you watch its heavy breathing, as you 
listen to its groans that in breakers sound like 
thunder, you almost wish that you could still 
its throbbing heart, and its restless movements. 
You half pity it, as if it must be tired out. And 
yet your sympathy is sometimes mingled with 
disgust, as you see it belching into the air and 
depositing upon the beach all manner of un- 
cleanness. The filth of city sewers it rolls as 
a sweet morsel under its tongue. It swallows 
with a gurgling noise the human corpse, and 
then spews it forth with slimy weeds upon the 
sand, over which is strewed all conceivable 
refuse. 

With all this in mind, how forcibly come to 
us Isaiah's words, "The wicked are like the 
troubled sea ; for it cannot rest, and its waters 
cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith 
my God, to the wicked. ' ' What a striking pic- 
ture the prophet thus gives us of the ungodly! 
They have no real composure of soul. They have 
the restlessness of unsatisfied natures. From 
their innermost being are evolved all sorts of 
sinful thoughts and desires, and they might 
well put their hands upon their mouths like 
lepers, and cry, "Unclean! unclean!" They 
need the One who is from above to purify the 

[110] 



By the Sea 

secret springs of action, and to calm the tur- 
bulent spirit. 

We proceed along the shore, and the ocean 
appears to us in another light. The suicide will 
stand alone in the dark on some dock, looking 
down into the gloomy waters, and revolving 
unspeakable intentions. One plunge, he thinks, 
and oblivion of life's sins and sorrows will 
follow. The great deep thus speaks of forget- 
fulness. Lost at sea means gone forever. Many 
a vessel, with precious freightage, has disap- 
peared never to rise from the watery grave, 
till the sea gives up its dead. More than one 
has gazed over the fathomless waters, and 
sighed for a burial therein of all that is gross 
in his nature. He would like to part eternally 
with the stains upon his character. But he is 
afraid that the ' ' damned spots ' ' will not ' l out. ' ' 
He is like Macbeth who felt that all the waters 
of old ocean would not cleanse his hand when 
blood-stained with murder. He on the contrary 
under the scourgings of a guilty conscience 
cried out in an agony of fear, 

"This my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red." 

Shakespeare well depicts the terribleness of an 
outraged conscience, and the Bible equally por- 
trays the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but the 
Christian's religion, unlike the dramatist's phi- 
losophy, does testify to the efficacy of the ocean, 
under certain conditions, in removing moral 

[111] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

stains. The inspired Micah says of God, ' ' Thou 
wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the 
sea. " This is a very sweet reminder by the 
seaside of entire forgiveness. God does both 
forgive and forget. Do any long to have the 
imperfect and guilty past as completely for- 
gotten, as though it lay at the bottom of the 
ocean? If they are penitent and believing, 
their sins will be cast into the depths of the 
sea, to rise up against them no more to all eter- 
nity. So that the ocean speaks to us not only 
of mire and dirt and wickedness, but also of 
pardon and purity and peace. 

Advancing a little farther along the shore, 
another feature of the ocean appears. Do you 
see the white caps tossed lightly up? These 
foamy waves are caused by an upspringing 
breeze. The direction in which they go depends 
upon the quarter from which the wind blows. 
They are mere surface billows, with broken 
crests, and they do not reach down to the heart 
of the ocean. They change their course with 
every rising gale. There are persons whose 
religion is of that description. They have what 
James calls faith without works. They do not 
hold steadily on in the way they started. They 
are "carried about,' ' says Paul, "with every 
wind of doctrine." They are not stable and 
reliable. They run after every religious nov- 
elty, they do not stay anchored anywhere. They 
attend the services of the sanctuary for a while, 
and then they drop out, or at least become very 

[112] 



By the Sea 

irregular. They cannot be classed as among the 
standbys. They are not steadfast. 

What, according to Scripture, are such like? 
What Biblical illustration do we get of them, 
as we stand by the ocean? The apostle James 
compares such a person to the " surge of the 
sea driven by the wind and tossed.' ' While, 
therefore, people should be Christians, they 
should not consent to be these surface waves 
caused by the wind, going now in one direction 
and then in another. They should rather be 
like the tide, which reaches to the very center 
of the ocean, and which, from whatever quarter 
the wind blows, moves ever shoreward. There 
is something impressive in the steady on-mov- 
ing of a tidal wave. Nothing can turn it from 
the beach, toward which it swells in majesty and 
strength. In our religious life we are not to be 
like the ' * surge of the sea driven by the wind, ' ' 
but we are to be like the deep undercurrent, 
like the mighty tide itself, always advancing, 
advancing, toward the shining shore, and there 
dissolving in glory. 

Once more, the sea speaks of breakers, where 
there is a chance for its full sweep. The ocean 
outside of the sheltered harbor thunders warn- 
ing. When we consider its vastness, three 
times as extensive as the dry land, we can 
hardly see why it does not overleap its bounds 
and engulf every thing. Professor William B. 
Carpenter tells us that ' ' the average height of 
the whole land of the globe above the sea-level 

[113] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

certainly does not exceed 1,000 feet. ' ' That is 
not a very great height to surmount. What 
desolation would be wrought, if the deep should 
burst its bonds! Sometimes it does overflow 
large districts with appalling results. Stand- 
ing on a long stretch of sandy beach, you won- 
der what there is to hinder it from sweeping 
far beyond your position, and sometimes it does 
catch the wayfarer. You tremble when you 
realize what disaster such a bulk of water could 
carry. And it does bulk large, for the oceans 
are not only big but deep, so deep that after 
a descent of 600 feet there is absolute darkness, 
a blackness like pitch. There average depth is 
two and a half miles, and there are marine 
abysses five and even six miles deep lacking 
only a few feet. Into one of these oceanic 
depressions Mount Everest, the highest of the 
Himalayas and of the earth, could be sunk, 
while yet water would roll over the lofty peak 
half a mile deep. With such figures for meas- 
urement, we nevertheless can form no adequate 
conception of the aqueous force that ordinarily 
is held in check, and that yet occasionally breaks 
loose with paralyzing effects. 

We cannot forget the dykes of Holland. We 
remember having read in history how the Neth- 
erlands have been repeatedly inundated; in 
1277 when forty-four villages were destroyed; 
ten years later when 80,000 persons lost their 
lives; in 1570, when notwithstanding the vast 
artificial embankments of timber and iron and 

[114] 



By the Sea 

granite, notwithstanding watchmen to patrol 
day and night, the ocean broke through, float- 
ing vessels back into the country to be entan- 
gled in the tops of trees and houses, while far 
and wide in an angry sea struggled hopelessly 
animals and a great mass of humanity, and 
100,000 human beings perished. 

With such tragic facts in memory, we pity 
the fate of the impenitent and incorrigible sin- 
ner, of whom Jeremiah in his Lamentations 
says, l ' Thy breach is great like the sea : who can 
heal thee!" What consternation will be theirs 
who are caught in the swelling of the Jor- 
dan unprepared to meet their God, unreconciled 
to their Maker. Indescribable will be their 
dismay, when the Psalmist 's words are fulfilled, 
1 l Thou carriest them away as with a flood, ' ' and 
no flood will equal that whose "breach is great 
like the sea." We thus hear the breakers, the 
thunders of warning, as we walk "by the sea." 
On the other hand, if any have the great Friend 
as a helper in the time of trouble, in the whelm- 
ing flood, they can and will have the undisturbed 
and serene confidence of the Psalmist, who said 
he would not ' ' fear, ' ' 

' ' Though the mountains be moved in the heart of the seas ; 
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. " 

In the midst of all will be the assurance of 
being soon where "the sea is no more," that is, 
in its destructive capacity, where there is only 
a peaceful ocean, preeminently the Pacific, even 

[115] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

the "glassy sea like unto crystal" before the 
throne. There is a celestial seaside by which 
we can walk, while we sing our triumph song: 

' ' Hark ! the sound of holy voices 
Chanting at the crystal sea, 
Alleluia, alleluia, 

Alleluia, Lord, to thee. " 



[116] 



VIII 

FISHING EXPERIENCES 



VIII 

FISHING EXPEEIENCES 

Fishing has been a diversion or an employ- 
ment in all ages. In my boyhood it was a rec- 
reation along a mountain brook, and the rich 
reward was a string of fine trout, a forked 
branch of willow being strung with speckled 
beauties. Every heart stirs to the poetic de- 
lineation : 

" There throw, nice judging, the delusive fly; 
And, as you lead it round in artful curve, 
With eye attentive mark the springing game." 

On the high seas fishing is a serious occupa- 
tion for thousands, who furnish no small per- 
centage of the world's food supply. The first 
disciples were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. 
Among the symbols of early Christianity, 
portrayed in the catacombs and elsewhere, were 
not only the dove and anchor but preeminently 
the fish. There is a famous acrostic which is 
very significant. The Greek word for fish, 
ixflvs, consists of the initial letters in the Greek 
sentence, i^o-ors Xpio-To's ®eov Ylo's Somj/o, Jesus Christ, 
Son of God, Saviour. These initials, therefore, 
worn on the person, or the representation of 
the i x 0vs itself on some design that was carried 

[119] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

as an adornment, would be like the C. E. mon- 
ogram on a gold pin, of which Christian En- 
deavorers today are proud. It was really a 
profession of faith in the divine Lord. Be- 
lievers in the mystic i x dvs were themselves 
"little fishes," according to the great Latin 
Church Father, Tertullian, of the latter half 
of the second and of the early part of the third 
century. He once said, "We, little fishes, after 
the image of our i x dv<;, Jesus Christ, are born in 
the water." Because of such associations, 
there is a fisherman's ring, of which historical 
mention is made as long as nearly seven cen- 
turies ago. It is of gold, with a representation 
of St. Peter in a boat, fishing. This for gen- 
erations at least has been placed on the finger 
of every newly-elected Pope, signifying, like 
the ordinary bishop's ring, a marriage to the 
Church. Whether this venerable relic was the 
original possession of Peter or not, it might 
well have been owned by that apostle, for he 
was a fisherman, and he was commissioned to 
"catch men." The New Testament gives three 
of his fishing experiences. 

The first time, at Christ's command he 
launched out into the deep, soon to find his net 
breaking with a great multitude of fishes, 
enough to fill two boats. Then and there, with 
the glittering spoil in full sight, he was called 
to be a fisher of men. He had already been 
called by Jesus on the banks of the Jordan, 
where he heard the Baptist's testimony, but he 

[120] 



Fishing Experiences 

had not yet given up his old occupation. Now, 
however, there was to be a change ; henceforth 
he was to cast only the gospel net. A higher 
type of the piscatorial art was to be his. By 
means of the material he was led on to the 
spiritual, and his was a common experience. 

When the Master met the woman of Samaria 
at the well he asked her for a drink, and 
the sparkling beverage being the uppermost 
thought in the mind, it was not long before he 
was telling her of the living water. The Magi, 
who gave themselves to the study of the stars, 
found Jesus by means of a star. The woman 
at the well and the magician of the east were 
each led to the Messiah by the material object 
which was especially appropriate. Many a one 
nowadays is made a follower of the Master in 
a similar way. 

The farmer knows from personal experience, 
that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap;" what is put in the ground comes 
out, only in greater abundance. So he feels 
that it must be religiously ; sowing the wind will 
bring a harvest of the same, only increased till 
it becomes the whirlwind. By this argument 
ad hominem, by this natural sowing, he is per- 
suaded to cherish the supernatural seed. The 
business man likewise is reached according to 
his nature. He is given to balancing accounts, 
to determining the profit and loss, and by and 
by he realizes that there is one account which he 
has not yet balanced, or rather he runs up the 

[121] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

two columns of life and death, and he discovers 
that the latter overruns. He is startled, and 
wonders if he has calculated according to the 
right rule. He reads the rule slowly over, 
"What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole 
world, and forfeit his life, ' ' lose his soul I That 
is the basis on which he made his calculation 
only to find that his account with God was all 
loss and no profit. Not wishing to go into eter- 
nal bankruptcy, he reverses his action, and 
henceforth lays up treasures in heaven. That 
squares the account, or rather changes it from 
all loss and no profit to all profit and no loss, 
for the account balanced reads, "All things are 
yours." It is in this manner that the business 
man may see at length that the great business 
of life has reference to eternity. 

The lawyer may have a like experience. He 
has pleaded case after case, only at last to be 
himself under indictment, about to be called 
into judgment, and he looks for some one to 
manage his case before "the Judge of all the 
earth." More impressive and instructive and 
helpful than all his law books here is the Book 
of books wherein he reads from the divine John, 
"We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous." To this advocate he 
opens his heart, and soon with the conscious- 
ness of a glorious acquittal, he rests his case. 
No legal technicalities and quibbles can hold him 
longer under trial, for the successful plea in 
his behalf was made nineteen centuries ago on 

[122] 



Fishing Experiences 

Calvary, when the advocate with the sanction 
of heaven and amid the volcanic plaudits of the 
earth closed his eloquent defense with the tri- 
umphant, ' ' It is finished. ' ' Thus the barrister 
in the study of human law may be brought face 
to face with the divine law, before which he 
stands condemned, except as he is cleared by 
him whose defense was the pouring out of his 
very life with an eloquence so pathetic as to 
touch and overpower the heart of the Almighty 
himself. 

How is it with the physician? He treats with 
calm equanimity the bodily ills of patient after 
patient, until some frightened soul says to him 
by looks if not in words, "It is not the pain, 
doctor, but it is the darkness ; cannot you save 
me from the blackness of despair, cannot you 
illumine the future!" Such an appeal, though 
mute, to an ungodly practitioner must cut to 
the quick, as he recognizes that his dying pa- 
tient is but reechoing the Scriptural proverb, 
' ' Physician, heal thyself. ' ' Had he been in the 
light, he might have led a wandering spirit out 
of the gloom. When Macbeth asked, "How 
does your patient, doctor ?" the answer was, 
"Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with 
thick-coming fancies." Shakespeare knew that 
there was in the guilty Lady Macbeth ' i a mind 
diseased, ' ' that is, that there was upon her soul 
the stain of a great sin, which did "keep her 
from her rest," and which made her walk in 
her sleep with tormented spirit. Doubtless 

[123] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

many a physician, in connection with his pro- 
fessional duties, has seen the need of a calling 
higher than his own, which can save the soul 
as well as heal the body, or which, as the great 
dramatist says, can " pluck from the memory 
a rooted sorrow." 

Thus in every sphere the temporal can be 
made to lead to the eternal. The earthly is one 
of the most powerful instruments which Omnip- 
otence uses. Not infrequently he reaches us 
through the senses. Such is human nature, and 
Diogenes understood it pretty well, when on 
one occasion in the long ago he went groping 
through the streets at noonday with lantern in 
hand, in search of men. True men were scarce 
in those days, and nothing could have impressed 
this so vividly upon the mind, as for that old 
philosopher to go peering through Athens with 
a lantern in broad daylight. That was a pic- 
ture which struck the senses, and so it has been 
remembered for over two thousand years. The 
minister has to be a kind of Diogenes. People 
sometimes say, What is the use of the preacher, 
since he only tells his hearers to do what they 
ought to do without the telling? Nevertheless, 
in the words of Paul, it is " God's good pleas- 
ure through the foolishness of the preaching to 
save them that believe." 

To have a clergyman go round among parish- 
ioners with the lamp and light of God's Word 
in hand does set them to thinking, as they would 
not otherwise do. They cannot help being im- 

[124] 



Fishing Experiences 

pressed when they see a ministerial Diogenes 
with the gospel lantern going here and there 
seeking men. That stirs their souls, as, for 
instance, the appeal through the glory of the 
heavens does not. The one, "holding forth the 
word of rife" as "a lamp shining in a dark 
place," is right among them and so real; the 
other, the starry firmament, is far off, and so 
vague and powerless. It is all because, consti- 
tuted as we are, the earthly has more power over 
us than the heavenly, or at least the heavenly 
is reached through the earthly. Peter went 
a fishing, and became a fisher of men. Through 
the material he was led to the immaterial. 
Happy are we, if we allow ourselves to be 
directed through nature up to nature's God, 
through the human up to the divine. 

A second fishing experience of Peter is re- 
lated by Matthew. It was the custom of the 
Jews who had reached the age of twenty to pay 
annually toward the support of temple worship 
at Jerusalem. This sacred tribute being asked 
of Christ through Peter, and neither of them 
having anything to give, the disciple was told 
to cast a hook into the water, and the fish caught 
would have within it the requisite amount of 
money, and it did have. Christianity needs men 
of wealth, fishes, if you please, with gold in 
their mouths. Money is needed not for the 
temple in Jerusalem as of old, but for temples 
over all the world. From China and Japan 
and India, and even from destitute places in our 

[125] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

own country, the cry is for help, the means at 
command being too limited to carry on as could 
be wished the grand work of Christian evan- 
gelization. There is not enough in the treasury 
of the Church to meet all the demands for 
assistance. There are noble persons, whose 
riches are sent out in streams of blessing to 
mankind. There is needed the catching of more 
fish with money, for coin can be turned to a 
better use than to lie idle in the great stomach 
of selfishness, where alone it becomes, as the 
modern phrase is, " tainted.' ' The fish is no 
better off for the gold within it, neither is man 
with all his ample means compassed in self. 
We want for Christ men of wealth, whether 
wealth of money or of mind. Every immortal 
creature, according to the great Teacher, is 
worth more than the whole world. All are of 
priceless value, but all are not equally capable 
of being brought into the kingdom. 

Some are too wary to be taken in a net, to 
be drawn in with the multitude. They must be 
angled, caught singly by a hook (for that was 
Peter's method), by a hook prudently thrown. 
There is a legitimate fishing with the drag-net, 
there is the enclosing of a great mass by a 
sweeping movement, but the final result of this 
is not always satisfactory. As of old we get 
good and bad. We, for instance, work up an 
excitement, we launch out with much of dem- 
onstration, we throw our net, we pull it in, and 
it is full, but too largely of eels, for it is not 

[126] 



Fishing Experiences 

long before many of the slippery things have 
squirmed out. Those caught singly, one by one, 
are apt to turn out better, and therefore we 
need more of skill with individuals, more of 
scientific fishing. There is science even in fish- 
ing, which cannot be done successfully by bun- 
glers. Said Isaac Walton as long ago as 1653 
in "The Complete Angler," "Move your rod 
softly as a snail moves to that chub you intend 
to catch; let your bait fall gently upon the 
water three or four inches before him, and he 
will infallibly take the bait. ' ' Then this writer 
gives a personal experience : ' ' There lie upon 
the top of the water, in this very hole, twenty 
chubs. I'll catch only one, and that shall be the 
biggest of them all." He does angle so com- 
pletely, that he immediately exclaims, "There 
he is, that very chub I showed you with the 
white spot on." This angling, this nice skill, 
this singling out the one we are after, this re- 
ligious spotting of some particular person, 
is what we need in spiritual fishing. There 
should be a delicately-wise approach, such as 
characterizes "the complete angler." 

Peter drew in a great multitude with the net, 
but when he caught the fish with money in it 
he cast the hook. While many can be swept 
into the kingdom, some can only be angled. 
We may not be able to address a great audi- 
ence, to move a large congregation, but we can 
influence a friend, we can bring to bear upon 
some acquaintance the force of a consecrated 

[127] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

personality. This can be made to tell mightily 
for the cause. There should be less of the hap- 
hazard effort and more of the definite aim. Of 
course, there is such a thing as " fisherman's 
luck," which Dr. Henry Van Dyke made the 
title of one of his delightful books. He enlarged 
upon the feature of chance, of uncertainty, of 
exciting adventure, in catching fish There is 
an element of luck in the occupation, which, 
however, to a certain degree is also as we have 
seen an exact science. 

To change the figure, and to use a Biblical 
phrase, there is not infrequently an effective 
drawing of the bow at a venture, and an Old 
Testament king was once thus brought down. 
Said Sir Walter Scott: 

"O, many a shaft at random sent, 
Finds mark the archer little meant. " 

Longfellow, too, pictures a random shot as hav- 
ing accomplished its purpose, when he wrote, 

"I shot an arrow into the air, 

It fell to earth, I knew not where; 
****** 

"I breathed a song into the air, 

It fell to earth, I know not where ; 
****** 

"Long, long afterward, in an oak 
I found the arrow still unbroke; 
And the song, from beginning to end, 
I found again in the heart of a friend. ' ' 

This is true often enough to encourage us in 
the quite casual remark. Nevertheless, while 
"an arrow into the air" does often hit the right 

[128] 



Fishing Experiences 

spot, generally it is better to aim at a mark. 
Whether in shooting or in fishing or in 
doing religious work, it is well ordinarily to 
individualize more than we do. 

A third time Peter went a fishing. It was 
in the interval of uncertainty between the res- 
urrection and the ascension. Christ had died 
and risen again, appearing from time to time 
to his confused disciples. They hardly knew 
what to do, for they could no longer follow the 
Master personally as they had done, while all 
were sustained from a common purse. What 
now were they to do? That was the troubling 
question. At length Peter settled it so far as 
he was concerned by saying, "I go a fishing ;" 
that is, he would take up his old occupation till 
he got more light, he would proceed with pres- 
ent duty and await further developments. Six 
others fell in with his plan, as they decided to 
go along. All night they toiled upon the lake, 
but in vain, till the morning came, when at the 
word of the unrecognized Lord on the shore 
the net was cast once more, quickly to be filled 
with the finny tribe, and soon Peter was at the 
Master's side, and before the interview closed, 
his faith was again made strong. In a time of 
doubt and darkness, he went a fishing, and 
found Christ anew. 

We all, probably, at particular times come into 
a state of more or less uncertainty. We are in 
the dark. What shall we do ? Just what Peter 
did; in all his confusion he felt that one thing 

[129] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

was right, and that was to go to work, and at 
it he went in his old way. In a similar condi- 
tion, we should give ourselves to activity, pro- 
saically if need be, from a hard sense of duty 
if necessary, doing with a grim determination 
the best we can, acting up to the light we have. 
We are to hold ourselves steadily to this, to the 
unwavering performance of at least the minor 
and even of the major activities. By pursuing 
undeviatingly such a course of conduct, there 
will come to us sooner or later a revelation of 
the Lord, of whom we may have temporarily 
lost the vision. Whatever else may be uncer- 
tain, whatever may be our bewilderment in cer- 
tain respects, it is right to fish for souls, to 
seek to help others. 

We are to stand to our posts, we are to do 
heroic service, even in the midst of darkness. 
We ought to have more of the spirit shown by 
the brave Spartan at Thermopylae. When he 
was reminded that the arrows of the Persians 
falling round him were so numerous as posi- 
tively to obscure the sun, his reply was that he 
preferred to fight in the shade. His sentiment 
was, 

Let the arrows come in their darkening flight, 
They make a fine shade in which to fight. 

When there is such resoluteness, such grit and 
grace, in facing ordeals, when we act well our 
part, however perfunctorily sometimes, however 
machine-like for the time being, when the Lord 
sees us toiling faithfully, he will i ' come to us, ' ' 

[130] 



Fishing Experiences 

and with his blessing on our efforts be they ever 
so material, the spiritual will certainly be 
added. The way out of religious perplexity and 
depression, and a general unsatisfactoriness of 
experience, is to set about doing something. By 
work faith in us is strengthened. 

Nor are we to be discouraged by long toiling, 
for the dawn with better things is at hand. 
" Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy 
cometh in the morning.' ' With this assurance 
we are to toil on all through life even, all night, 
and when the morning of eternity breaks, Jesus 
will stand on the shore as he did with Peter, 
only it will be on the ' ' shining shore, ' ' and our 
works shall follow us, our gospel net shall be 
drawn ashore after us, full of souls saved 
through our instrumentality. The more there 
are to come to us at last with grateful expres- 
sion for the ways we have served them, and 
especially for transcendent service rendered in 
life 's crucial periods, the more will be the flash- 
ing jewels with which our crowns of rejoicing 
will be set. 



[131] 



IX 

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 



IX 

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 

Next to the Catskills of my youth, what Starr 
King christened the White Hills have most fre- 
quently lured me, commanding my rapt atten- 
tion and my highest admiration. It was the 
mountains of which Ruskin said, " these great 
cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of 
rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of stream and 
stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple, 
traversed by the continual stars." The same 
author well notes how insignificant blades of 
grass contribute to the glory of the everlasting 
hills. Read his eloquent apostrophe to what 
he terms mere strips of "fluted green," and 
you can echo his language : i ' Look toward the 
higher hills, where the waves of everlasting 
green roll silently into their long inlets among 
the shadows of the pines; and we may, per- 
haps, at last know the meaning of those quiet 
words of the 147th Psalm, He maketh grass to 
grow upon the mountains.' ' 

In entering upon particulars, we shall have 
to confine ourselves, quoting from Deuteronomy, 
to ' i the chief things of the ancient mountains. ' ' 
The first important point in passing up the 

[135] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

famous Franconia Notch is the Flume. This 
is a remarkable natural fissure, solid rock ap- 
parently having once been rent in twain by an 
earthquake or other shock, while through the 
opening thus made a stream dashes with a sense 
of liberty. For several hundred feet you as- 
cend the gorge, stepping from stone to stone, 
or following a plank walk, or crossing romantic 
bridges, until in the narrowing defile, with the 
water roaring beneath your feet, and the rocks 
rising straight up on your right and on your 
left, and trees hanging threateningly over you, 
you almost fear for your life, lest by some slight 
jar things might be set to tumbling about your 
head. 

Especially was there this sense of insecurity, 
when a few years ago between the walls at the 
narrowest place hung a huge boulder that 
weighed tons. It seemed to be held by the 
smallest contact possible with the crags on 
either side. Would not a push of the hand start 
it swinging, and perhaps spring it from its 
sockets ? Naturally visitors felt somewhat tim- 
orous on passing beneath it, though sometimes 
with a kind of daring they would stoop to take 
a drink of water directly under the vast sus- 
pended mass. It doubtless had been lodged 
there for geologic ages, they would argue, while 
they felt it would continue there for countless 
millenniums yet. Starr King spoke of it in his 
day after this fashion, "as unpleasant to look 
at, if the nerves are irresolute, as the sword of 

[136] 



The White Mountains 

Damocles, and yet held by a grasp out of which 
it will not slip for centuries.' ' 

But he was mistaken. The sword of Damoc- 
les, suspended by a single hair, did fall; and 
the colossal stone did one day go crashing to 
the bottom of the chasm. On the 19th of June, 
1883, there was a terrific thunder storm, and 
more deafening than the roar of heaven's artil- 
lery was an awful, deep rumbling which lasted 
for forty minutes, and which was heard at Beth- 
lehem seventeen miles away. What had hap- 
pened? A tremendous landslide had occurred, 
and the boulder was carried down like the 
merest pebble. We get here a lively and im- 
pressive illustration of the divine omnipo- 
tence. In the presence of the terrible forces 
of the mountains, we feel very sensibly the 
almightiness of the Creator. With such ex- 
hibitions of power, human helplessness becomes 
all too evident. Under such circumstances, 
one must be moved to stand and reverently 
worship. 

Farther up the Franconia Notch is another 
wonder. A mountain breaks into human sem- 
blance, giving us the renowned Profile, or the 
Old Man of the Mountain. Ascend to that 
craggy height springing into the air 1200 feet 
above the valley, which is itself at a consid- 
erable elevation above the sea level, get a near 
view, and there are only chaotic rocks, with- 
out form and void. But when you are suffi- 
ciently removed, there is a strong and majestic 

[137] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

and benignant face, and the poet's lines are 
verified, 

' ' 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, 
And robes the mountain in its azure hue, ' ' 

and it equally brings out in this case the linea- 
ments of a man. When you get just the right 
standpoint, there appears that human visage, 
with its far-off look to the southeast. 

There is the noble forehead, the perfect nose, 
and there are ' ' the vast lips, which, ' ' says Haw- 
thorne in his classic Tale, "if they could have 
spoken, would have rolled their thunder accents 
from one end of the valley to the other,' ' that 
valley of which Whittier has said, 

" Watched over by the solemn-browed 
And awful face of stone.' ' 

The flight of time would seem as nothing to 
that serene countenance with its unchanging 
expression of repose. 

The Profile Lake immediately below has been 
called the Old Man's washbowl, and again, with 
a finer thought, his mirror, but he remains un- 
moved at our fancies, and answers not a word, 
though the companion Echo Lake near by would 
seem to give an opportunity for a returning 
voice. He however makes no response. He 
just continues to beam pleasantly upon us in our 
infantile littleness. We stand and gaze at him 
with a certain awe, and we feel the subtle influ- 
ence of those benign features whose peaceful- 
ness has not been disturbed for centuries. 

[138] 



The White Mountains 

Hawthorne's romance of "The Great Stone 
Face" represents a boy Ernest as growing up 
in daily sight of the expressive face, and as 
being unconsciously educated by it into nobility 
of character. The lad was told by his mother 
of an Indian legend, that there would come 
some day to the valley a great and good man 
with a face like that sculptured by the hand of 
God on the brow of the mountain, and he began 
at once watching and waiting, and longing for 
the fulfillment of the mysterious prophecy. In 
his boyhood there returned to the valley one 
who had been a native of it, but who had gone 
away and had become immensely rich, and who 
in retiring from business selected the place of 
his happy childhood. On the site of the old 
farm-house he erected a marble palace, and 
furnished it in princely style. The popular im- 
pression at first was that the predicted coming 
one had appeared in this Gathergold, and a 
resemblance was imagined between his features 
and those chiseled in stone. But when his 
penuriousness was seen, and his general mean- 
ness of character, hopes were disappointed. 
Ernest from the outset had failed to see any 
likeness to the Great Stone Face in the l i sordid 
visage ' ' of the Midas at whose touch everything 
had turned to gold. 

When he became a young man, another native 
of the valley came back to end his days there, 
and he was a celebrated general. Again were 
there great expectations, and the features of 

[139] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

the Profile were eagerly compared with those 
of the distinguished commander. For a while 
resemblances were traced, but a closer inspec- 
tion revealed a certain lack in the man of war. 
There was not the tenderness, the mildness, that 
appeared in the Great Stone Face, which was 
as the face of an angel "sitting among the 
hills, ' ' says the romancer, "and enrobing him- 
self in a cloud- vesture of gold and purple.' ' 
Ernest had reached middle age. when hope was 
again stirred, as an eminent statesman came 
back to the place of his nativity, having but 
recently been nominated to the Presidency. 
There was a triumphal procession of old neigh- 
bors and friends to give him a welcome, and 
banners were carried with his portrait smiling 
to another of the Stone Face, and according to 
the artist at least there was a striking resem- 
blance between the two. Shouts went up for 
him who immediately became known as Old 
Stony Phiz, and the name of itself caught 
voters by the score. Once more was there dis- 
appointment, as time revealed an absence of 
high purpose in the honored guest, and selfish 
ambition was set aside as failing to meet the 
ideal so grandly imaged in stone. 

Eventually Ernest became an old man, whose 
life had been one of quiet ministry to his fel- 
lows, and whose ripening of character was beau- 
tiful to behold, when another native of the val- 
ley appeared upon the scene in an illustrious 
poet. He sought out Ernest himself, who had 

[140] 



The White Mountains 

become known far and wide as a kind of sage 
because of noble thoughts, which seemed to 
drop naturally from his lips as the fruit of real 
heart experiences. The poet found him alter- 
nately reading a book of the visitor's poems, 
and then gazing earnestly up at the physiog- 
nomy of rock. Upon his learning that the 
stranger was the writer of what he was reading, 
again were his anticipations unrealized, espe- 
cially on hearing the poet's own confession that 
divine as his thoughts had been, his life had 
been very human. 

And now came an astonishing disclosure. 
About sunset the aged inhabitant of the valley, 
as was his custom, gathered his neighbors 
about him, and spoke to them words of life out 
of a rich experience, and the poet himself sat 
and listened with entranced attention to the 
prophet of "mild, sweet, thoughtful counte- 
nance, with the glory of white hair diffused 
about it," while, says Hawthorne, "at a dis- 
tance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in the 
golden light of the setting sun, appeared the 
Great Stone Face, with hoary mists around it, 
like the white hairs around the brow of Er- 
nest, ' ' and the poet with i ' irresistible impulse ' ' 
exclaimed, "Behold! behold! Ernest is him- 
self the likeness of the Great Stone Face!" 
And it was even so. Not the wealthy merchant, 
nor the great military leader, nor the ambitious 
politician, nor even the author of world-wide 
fame, but the person of character was the one 

[141] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

who was imaged in the grand Profile on the 
mountain side. He who daily dreamed of the 
sublime ideal in stone, and who sought for its 
realization in human character, himself became 
like that which engrossed his mind and heart. 
Let the fulfillment of prophecy be seen in the 
Christ who has already come, let the matchless 
face of the Son of man and Son of God be that 
upon which we gaze with adoration and aspira- 
tion, let him whose image appears in the Rock 
of Ages and in the everlasting hills be contin- 
ually before our eyes, and we have a grander 
ideal than that of the Great Stone Face, and 
the character resulting will be correspondingly 
more noble. 

We next pass round to take in the majestic 
Presidential range. These on an October day, 
when perhaps their tops are covered with snow 
and the air is translucent, are seen to be indeed 
in their crystal clearness the White Hills. The 
highest of these we once and again have 
climbed. We ascended on our first trip there 
by the carriage road, and after four miles of 
steady ascent we were above the timber line. 
But we had four miles more to go, we were only 
half way up, and how we were thrilled by the 
unique experience! We looked down into the 
valley below, and the dark shadows lying along 
it gave us a creeping sensation, as if we were 
peering down into Dante's Inferno. We struck 
into a cloud with the wind blowing a gale, and 
the mists came fairly boiling up out of gulfs and 

[142] 



The White Mountains 

ravines which seemed bottomless pits. Then 
we were hit by a snow-squall, in July though 
it was, and we seemed to be in the wildest win- 
ter weather with drifting snows and fogs pre- 
venting vision farther than a few feet. We 
were not surprised to learn that ladies some- 
times have to be held to be kept from being 
blown from the platform in front of the hotel 
then on the summit, while strong men occasion- 
ally have been hurled to the ground by a blast 
of the Almighty. We can imagine what an 
electric storm would be at such an altitude, with 
the lightning striking the bare rocks on every 
side, and with deep thunderings reverberating 
in awful sublimity from peak to peak. 

We shuddered on seeing the pile of stones 
on the spot where Lizzie Bourne perished, hav- 
ing almost and yet not quite reached the top, 
as she lay down to die in a tempest of the night. 
We recalled the other tragedies of those who 
in some storm lost their trail, their discovered 
bones afterward telling of their mournful fate, 
while now and then one has wandered away 
never yet to be found. Amid the dense fog and 
especially the terrific play of the elements at 
a height where there is nothing to break their 
force, we feel the power of the Creator in whose 
sight the vast mountains are only as dust in 
the balance. Even in clear and calm weather 
we have a sense of being the merest pigmies on 
earth, when slowly we ascend Mount Washing- 
ton. We wind round close by Madison and 

[143] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

Adams and Clay and Jefferson, and we see 
them as it were sinking beneath our feet, and 
when we reach the highest crest we are bewil- 
dered by the multitude of Haystacks, to use 
the figure of the countryman, who said that 
New Hampshire contained so much land, it had 
to be stacked. 

In another aspect the surrounding country 
seems to be tossed into multitudinous billows, 
while if we are favored with cloud effects far 
below, there is for all the world the appearance 
of white caps on an angry and boundless ocean, 
and we swing our hat in the brisk wind that is 
blowing, while we exclaim as Byron did of a 
European mountain, 

"Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains; 
They crowned him long ago 
On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, 
With a diadem of snow. ' ' 

We catch the enthusiasm of these lines, and we 
recognize that the great and majestic God who 
made all is worthy of the most devout adora- 
tion. Particularly do we feel this, when we 
consider how comparatively insignificant even 
the great mountains are as related to the whole 
round earth. "The thickness of a sheet of 
writing paper on an artificial sphere a foot in 
diameter/ ' we are authoritatively assured, 
"represents the eminence of the mountain 
chains. They are no more than the cracks in 
the varnish of such a ball. ' ' Surely we ought 
to bow down and worship, we ought to kneel 

[144] 



The White Mountains 

before the Lord our Maker, and the Creator 
of the universe. 

In our survey, we must not omit the superb 
Crawford Notch. We see a silvery stream 
dashing along through the length of the valley, 
and we recall Tennyson's song of the brook, 

' ' For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever. ' ' 

We ascend Mount Willard at the head of the 
Notch, and from a precipitous edge we com- 
mand a most pleasing view of forest-clad Willey 
on one side and of towering Webster on the 
other, and the whole immense gorge lies at our 
feet. Creeping to the brink of the shelving 
mountain, and looking straight down, and lis- 
tening to the sounds that rise to our ears, we 
can say with Bryant, 

"It is a fearful thing 
To stand upon the beetling verge, and see 
Where storm and lightning, from that huge gray wall, 
Have tumbled down vast blocks, and at the base 
Dashed them in fragments; and to lay thine ear 
Over the dizzy depth, and hear the sound 
Of winds, that struggle with the woods below, 
Come up like ocean murmurs. ' ' 

Still standing there, we are reminded of the 
Willey catastrophe that brought disaster to 
the family of that name far below us in the 
center of the Notch. This was in 1826. In 
front of the humble inn was a green stretch 
of meadow, extending to Mount Webster of 
frowning brow. Back of the dwelling rose 

[145] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

threateningly Mount Willey, but being verdure- 
clad it did not seem specially fraught with 
danger. To be sure, a thunder-bolt or a sud- 
denly rising stream would sometimes loosen a 
huge boulder on Webster, and with a deafening 
roar it would go crashing to the bottom, leaving 
a trail of light along the path it quickly trav- 
ersed. But the Willey family were not prepared 
to see, after a dark and heavy August storm, 
the mountain itself back of them begin to move 
in their direction. Nevertheless, that evidently 
was what they did see in the horror of great 
darkness which must have been theirs. They 
rushed from the house only to be caught by 
the avalanche, which covered the meadow at 
places to a depth of thirty feet, and which 
buried three of the household so deep that they 
were never found. 

Had they remained in the cottage, they would 
have been spared, for just above it a rocky 
ledge divided the landslide, and the little struc- 
ture that had been their home was saved. Over 
the remains that were recovered, very properly 
did the preacher at the funeral speak from the 
text which says of God that he weighs "the 
mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. ' 9 
Very significantly was the family Bible lying 
open on the table in the Willey house at the 
eighteenth Psalm, containing such impressive 
sentences as these, 

' ' The Lord also thundered in the heavens, ' ' 

"And the foundations of the world were laid bare." 

[146] 



The White Mountains 

The historic disaster suggests that the nat- 
ural world has not only a benign but also a 
threatening aspect. Of the author of nature 
Paul bids us behold both his goodness and his 
severity. With such tragedies, there would 
seem to be no inherent improbability against 
the judgment to come pictured in the Bevela- 
tion, when many shall cry to the rocks and the 
mountains to fall on them and hide them from 
the wrath of the Lamb. That catastrophe in 
a New England mountain-pass shows what does 
sometimes occur, and what therefore may occur 
again at the final consummation of history. But 
the manifestly calm reading of the Holy Scrip- 
ture in that crisis indicates a trust, which can 
rise superior to all calamities. We can be like 
Tennyson, who believed in God and immortal- 
ity and in an overruling providence, to quote 
his well-known lines, 

' ' Tho ' Nature, red in tooth and elaw 
With ravine, shrieked against his creed." 

There can be a quiet contemplation of the worst 
that may be coming, while yet there is retained 
a serene faith in him whom the Bible reveals. 



[147] 



X 

THE MOUNTAINS ROUND ABOUT 
JERUSALEM 



THE MOUNTAINS EOUND ABOUT 
JERUSALEM 

Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Princeton Professor, 
distinguished author, and American Minister 
to the Netherlands, when he went to Southern 
California, caught inspiration from the Sierra 
Madre range as seen from Pasadena. Under 
the spell of its heights he wrote these lines : 

"O Mother Mountains! billowing far to the snow-lands, 

Robed in aerial amethyst, silver, and blue, 
Why do ye look so proudly down on the lowlands? 

What have their gardens and groves to do with you? 
********* 

' ' O Mother Mountains, Madre Sierra, I love you ! 

Rightly you reign o'er the vale that your bounty fills, — 
Kissed by the sun, or with big, bright stars above you, — 

I murmur your holy name, and lift up mine eyes to the 
hills." 

The writer evidently had in mind what the 
Psalmist wrote : 

' i I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains : 
From whence shall my help come? 
My help cometh from Jehovah, 
Which made heaven and earth. " 

The sight of the mountains, the implication is, 
has an inspiring effect. We are reminded of 
the thrill of rapture felt by the ten thousand 
Greeks, when the sea first burst upon their view. 

[151] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

You remember the story as related by Xeno- 
phon in his immortal Anabasis. The Greeks 
in their expedition to the far east met with 
reverse after reverse, until they had to abandon 
their project of a Persian conquest. 

The long march home was conducted amid 
disasters that almost overwhelmed the band of 
heroes, who, however, struggled on till at length 
the foremost ranks from a rise of ground saw 
in the distance the glimmering waters of the 
Euxine. They sent up a shout of joy at the 
longed-for sight, and others, hurrying forward 
to ascertain the cause of the excitement, helped 
to swell the mighty volume of glad cheering. 
The commander-in-chief, spurring his horse 
toward the front, caught the exultant cry, i i The 
sea! the sea!" That spoke of a speedy end 
to their toilsome march. The successful retreat 
of the famous ten thousand from the plains of 
Babylon was to be accomplished, to be the won- 
der of every century since. The sight of the 
sea meant deliverance from extremest peril, and 
a safe return home. 

Israel was portrayed as experiencing a sim- 
ilar relief and transformation, when, on lifting 
up the eyes, the mountains came into view. It 
has been suggested that the Psalm, from which 
our quotation has been made, may have been 
chanted by the pilgrims returning from the 
exile in Babylon. The land of the captivity 
was a level country, so level as to have been 
monotonous to the Median princess, whom Neb- 

[152] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

uchadnezzar married and brought from her 
mountainous home to the prosaic plain. That 
is why the oriental monarch built the celebrated 
Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of 
the ancient world. It was to gratify an ex- 
pressed desire of his young wife to see a moun- 
tain again. Accordingly for her the artificial 
hill was constructed, rising picturesquely in 
successive terraces above the city walls like a 
garden, like a suspended paradise, which it was. 
The Jews also tired of the dreary sameness of 
Babylon, resembling our great stretches of 
prairie. They had come from what is expressly 
called a "hill country/' and when by decree of 
Cyrus they were permitted to return to their 
native land, they eagerly climbed higher and 
higher till they were once more among the 
"everlasting hills," which they so loved, as 
William Tell, according to Schiller, loved the 
"crags and peaks" of Switzerland. Drawing 
near their destination after a wearisome pil- 
grimage, they might well have broken out into 
the triumphant strain, ' ' I will lift up mine eyes 
unto the mountains." 

"Sacred Mountains" indeed were those of 
the Holy Land, and the historian, Headley, 
devoted an entire book to a description of what 
has transpired on their peaks. Mount Olym- 
pus was fabled to be the abode of the Grecian 
gods, but Mt. Carmel was actually the scene of 
the manifestation of the fiery presence of the 
eternal and only living God. The sculptor of 

[153] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

Alexander the Great thought that Mount Athos 
in Thrace, because of its natural conformation, 
could quite easily be transformed by chisel and 
hammer into a statue of the great general, 
which, says Plutarch, "in its left hand should 
hold a city of ten thousand inhabitants, and 
out of its right should pour a copious river 
into the sea." That, had the proposal been 
acted upon, would have been a splendid trans- 
formation, but it would not have equalled the 
transfiguration, which really did take place on 
another mount three centuries later, when, says 
an evangelist, "Jesus taketh with him Peter, 
and James, and John his brother, and bringeth 
them up into a high mountain apart," where 
he was "transfigured before them," while "his 
face did shine as the sun, and his garment be- 
came white as the light, ' ' glistering as the snow 
of Hermon, on which they were. The associa- 
tions make the mountains of Israel dearer and 
grander than those of any other country, giv- 
ing them a religious significance. Looming 
heights anywhere are suggestive of the majesty 
and glory of God. All of us have been im- 
pressed with the stately Biblical sentiment, 
"The strength of the hills is his," and with 
the sublime utterance of Isaiah, "He weighed 
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a bal- 
ance." The mountainous always and every- 
where awes the human spirit, but more espe- 
cially are we moved by the "mountains round 
about Jerusalem," which we are to consider, 

[154] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

glancing at simply three heights, that are fa- 
mous as the seven hills whereon Eome was 
built. 

The first is Zion, which, however, is by no 
means a Mont Blanc. It cannot compare in 
impressiveness with this as seen from the 
lovely valley of Chamonix. It has no Alpine 
grandeur. It is only about 2500 feet above the 
level of the Mediterranean, and most of us have 
stood on greater elevations than that in the 
Catskills, and in the White Mountains, where 
indeed summer hotels have been found at an 
altitude of 3,000 and even 6,000 feet. Neverthe- 
less the Psalmist could say, 

"Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, 
Is Mount Zion. ' ' 

And its moral elevation is grand, for out of it 
has come the law, and out of Jerusalem the 
word of God. There for over 1,000 years the 
kings and princes of Israel held the sceptre of 
power. There was founded a theocratic king- 
dom, out of which with germinant force sprang 
Christianity. There was inaugurated a wor- 
ship destined to become universal. There, on 
one of its spurs, on Mt. Moriah, where the 
mosque of Omar now stands, was erected the 
temple, a perpetual call to mankind to bow 
down before the Lord, the Maker of all. The 
sanctuary was the most conspicuous object on 
the "holy hill of Zion," on its Moriah peak. 
We have here, then, a summons to recognize 

[155] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

God, to meet for his worship. Zion, the holy 
temple, is not to be neglected. As the tribes 
of old went up to Jerusalem, we have our Zions 
to-day in the various churches where we should 
gather. We need time and again to climb to 
the mountain top of devotion and praise. We 
live too much in the plains. All the week we 
are in the valley, amid temptation and trial and 
abounding worldliness, and we need the Sab- 
bath to lift us to higher altitudes. President- 
Emeritus Eliot of Harvard, who sets a notably 
good example in this respect, has well said: 
"People of to-day should go to church regu- 
larly ; for, if men allow themselves to go with- 
out attending to the noblest things, they must 
expect to lose themselves in the confused stress 
and strain of everyday affairs.' ' We need to 
come to a decided stop every seventh day, and 
get out of the surging mass of sinning, chafing 
humanity, and we need to ascend the slopes 
of Zion, singing as we go, 

' ' I was glad when they said unto me, 
Let us go unto the house of the Lord. " 

Groveling in the dust, ground down by busi- 
ness, crushed by trouble, overborne by the 
power of evil, we need to lift our eyes unto the 
mountains whence cometh our help, unto Mount 
Zion, unto the repose of worship. Like a peace- 
ful mountain, the appointed day of rest prop- 
erly observed rises out of the surrounding 
chaos, calling our thoughts from the earthly to 

[ 150 J 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

the heavenly. We are not to forsake the assem- 
bling of ourselves together, as the custom of 
some is, says an apostle, as the habit of many 
is, we must say. There seems to be an increas- 
ing number of non-churchgoers even among 
professed believers, who in this respect do not 
follow in the footsteps of the Master, concern- 
ing whom it is recorded, "As his custom was, 
he entered into the synagogue on the sabbath 
day. " That is, he had the habit of worship, 
and we should have, not neglecting God's house, 
which has in it so much of helpfulness, which 
lifts us from the low vale to the lofty mount. 

The quiet hour at intervals is invaluable. It 
throws about us defensive influences, fortifying 
us against coming attacks of sin and sorrow. 
Zion anciently was an impregnable fortress. 
It was one of the last points to succumb in the 
conquest of Canaan by Joshua. It was the very 
last to surrender to Titus, 70 A.D., when Jeru- 
salem was trodden down of the Gentiles, as 
commemorated in the Arch of Titus still stand- 
ing near the historic Roman Forum in the city 
on the Tiber. The mount overthrown with such 
difficulty was the Gibraltar of Palestine. The 
Church is such a stronghold. It is a Mount 
Zion, a Gibraltar, for the tempted and tried. 
We are to lift up our eyes unto this mountain. 
Regular worshippers in the sanctuary receive a 
special blessing, they have as others do not the 
Lord for their helper. 

Olivet is another sacred mountain which has 

[ 157 1 



Biblical Nature Studies 

for us a helpful suggestion. On its western 
slope was Gethsemane, which we once visited 
with tender hearts. From its top, whence also 
we looked and indulged in the reminiscent, there 
was the weeping of the Lord over Jerusalem. 
Over on its opposite slope was the village of 
Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha and 
their brother Lazarus, where we lovingly lin- 
gered. It was the scene of the Triumphal 
Entry, when the people had to shout, or the 
very stones would have cried out, as the elo- 
quence of Brutus made 

' ' The stones of Eome to rise in mutiny. ' y 

But the peculiar renown of Olivet arises from 
its marking the place of the Ascension. Per- 
haps not from the point where the emperor 
Constantine and his aged mother built their 
memorial church, but somewhere from its sides 
or summits the risen Lord ascended on high, 
and Olivet fades away in the cloud which re- 
ceived him out of sight. The top of this holy 
mount is thus, so to speak, lost in the clouds. 
It penetrates the sky. Because of this glorious 
fact each of us should say with the Psalmist, 
"■I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains," 
unto Mount Olivet, whence cometh our help, 
for the promise is, "this Jesus, which was re- 
ceived up from you into heaven, shall so come 
in like manner as ye beheld him going into 
heaven.' ' The certainty of the Lord's resur- 
rection and ascension is something upon which 
we should fix our eyes, as upon a massive moun- 

[158] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

tain filling all the vision; and the certainty of 
his coming again, of the repetition of the clondy 
splendor of Olivet, when he shall come on the 
clouds of heaven with all the holy angels, — 
this should lead us to make sure of being among 
those, who, says the apostle, are "looking for 
the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of 
our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

In other words, we should see to it that we 
have more of the upward look, of the hope 
reaching like an anchor sure and steadfast 
within the veil. Our citizenship should increas- 
ingly be in heaven. Even the British Weekly 
has said that "the future life ' ? needs to enter 
more into religious thinking Eternity does 
grip the conscience as nothing else does. We 
should live more in the realm of the world to 
come; not to the extent of neglecting earthly 
duties, for that would be standing and gazing 
idly up into the sky like the disciples of old, 
who were gently rebuked therefor. But we 
should look long enough and often enough 
through the gates ajar between which loved 
ones sweep, long enough and often enough in 
the direction whither Christ disappeared in 
glory, to get a vivid sense of the reality of the 
celestial world. We need to ascend the mount 
touched by the cloud that receives the depart- 
ing out of sight From this exalted commun- 
ion with the unseen, we shall descend better 
equipped to fight life's battle. 

It was the distinguished Fabius who was 

[159] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

noted for "always keeping upon the hills. ' ' 
For this he was ridiculed by his impatient fol- 
lowers, the Romans, who inquired contemptu- 
ously, "whether it were not his meaning, by 
thus leading them from mountain to mountain, 
to carry them at last (having no hopes on 
earth) up into heaven, or to hide them in the 
clouds from Hannibal's army." But the great 
African general, the hero of old Carthage, saw 
the wisdom of Fabius. Subsequently meeting 
with defeat from him, he said, "Did not I tell 
you, that this cloud which always hovered upon 
the mountains at some time or other would 
come down with a storm upon us?" It was 
even so. That cloud contained thunder and 
lightning, contained bolts of destruction which 
nothing could resist. 

We need to dwell much, or at least more than 
we do in these busy times, on the heights of 
Olivet, in thoughts of heaven, in meditations 
upon the unseen. It is well occasionally to get 
up ' i among the clouds, ' ? though this may excite 
the ridicule of the prosaic, of those who have 
no ideals, of those who pride themselves on 
keeping to terra firma. Aristophanes, a liter- 
ary critic of the golden age of Greece, repre- 
sented Socrates as caught up to the clouds in 
a basket, and there he had the philosopher 
swinging in mid air. It was as if his views 
were altogether too exalted, too utterly super- 
fine, for earth, too far beyond and above the 
reach of ordinary mortals, and the comedian 

[160] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

thus tried to laugh him out of court. But we 
to-day see that from the lofty, and, if you 
please, cloudy and hazy altitude to which he 
was lifted in contempt, there came the very 
best and most forceful teachings of antiquity 
for the elevation of humanity. 

We may be sneered at for our ' ' other- world- 
liness," for living among the clouds with our 
impracticable notions of accomplishing any- 
thing by communing with the divine, but from 
those very clouds will come an electrical energy, 
a spiritual power, which will sweep with the 
strength of the thunder storm over the valley 
below, to which we descend for meeting its stern 
realities. Christ himself often went up into the 
mountain to pray, and especially on the eve 
of some trying ordeal. Cloud-capped Olivet is 
a good preparation for the conflict in the vale. 
We are thereby made sons of thunder, vital 
personalities fairly vibrant with electricity and 
well-nigh resistless. 

Once more, Calvary is needed to complete the 
view. This is not, strictly speaking, a moun- 
tain at all. The old paintings sometimes pic- 
ture it as a rugged height, but this does not 
correspond to the fact. It is not so much as 
called a hill by the evangelists, but the " place 
of a skull," its name, in the opinion of many, 
being derived from its form, from its being a 
rounded, skull-shaped mound. In this view 
of the matter, it was little more than a hillock. 

Helena, the mother of Constantine, in her 

[161] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

pilgrimage to the holy land at the age of eighty 
in the year 326, could scarcely find it ; but when 
she did discover what she believed was the site, 
well did her converted son, the emperor, dis- 
place the temple of Venus which had been 
erected there as an insult from heathenism, — 
very properly did he demolish this, and build 
in its stead the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 
This stood for three hundred years, and though 
burned by the Persians in the seventh century, 
and though its successor was destroyed by the 
Mohammedans in the tenth, there has been a 
restoration again and again, the last time in 
the nineteenth century, and this was the edifice 
we entered, with feelings like those of the Cru- 
saders when they sought to rescue the place 
from infidels during conflicts lasting for two 
centuries. 

This spot of hallowed memory, could it be 
certainly identified, should be, if possible, pre- 
served and cherished, for there Christ was cru- 
cified, there he was buried in a rocky tomb, 
there he died for human sin, there he made the 
great sacrifice which was to be once for all, 
which was forever to end the shedding of blood 
on smoking altars. But after all no such device 
as a church is needed to indicate the locality of 
Calvary. The great sacrificial truth, without 
requiring any outward symbol, speaks for itself 
with a most impressive majesty. 

We, however, would like to know the place 
of the Lord 's burial, for which there is another 

[162] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

claimant, that is growing in favor among mod- 
ern scholars. To be snre, the spot where the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located has 
been generally accepted for sixteen centuries. 
It was the tomb here for which the Crusaders 
so long contended. But not till the early part 
of the fourth century did Helena make her 
identification. She did not make her investi- 
gation till nearly three hundred years after the 
event. Meanwhile Jerusalem had been razed 
to the ground. The destruction was so thor- 
ough that all local sites must have been oblit- 
erated. Moreover, the one chosen is apparently 
within the ancient walls of old Jerusalem, as 
excavations would seem to show, whereas we 
are expressly informed that Christ was cruci- 
fied and buried without the gate. 

Now just outside the present Damascus Gate, 
there is a grassy knoll, which singularly an- 
swers to the description of the "green hill far 
away, without a city wall." In the face of it 
are grottoes, which make cavernous eyes, that 
from the right position give it very much the 
appearance of a human skull, justifying the 
New Testament writers in their characteriza- 
tion of the place. Still further, the new Cal- 
vary is a rounded, skull-shaped hill, giving 
another reason for the name. At its base, too, 
is a lovely garden breathing with the perfume 
of flowers, and the rock-hewn tomb wherein no 
man had yet been laid, and wherein the Lord 
found his repose of three days, was in the gar- 

[163] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

den of the Arimathean Joseph, and therefore 
in some such quiet spot as is here increasingly 
being commemorated. There is likewise a sep- 
ulchre excavated in the ledge of stone rising to 
form the plateau. So that all the conditions 
seem to be met in this Calvary, and with a tear- 
ful reverence we entered the tomb, which may 
have been that indicated by the angel in saying, 
"Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
One cannot very well stand unmoved within 
this sacred shrine, where he who died to save 
us all may have been entombed. 

There is here no great elevation of ground, 
if we are looking for that, and yet Calvary is 
high. A quaint old writer has called it the 
highest peak in the world, and it is. Mount 
Washington, crowning New England scenery, 
is high, over 6,000 feet, but Calvary is higher. 
Mont Blanc, the pride of Europe, is more than 
15,000 feet, but it is not, as Byron says mis- 
takenly, "the monarch of mountains," for Cal- 
vary is that. Mount McKinley in Alaska ex- 
ceeds 20,000 feet, and is the highest summit in 
North America, but there is a higher in Pales- 
tine. South America in the Andes range boasts 
of an altitude at one point, in Mount Huas- 
caran, recently ascended by a daring woman, 
of about 24,000 feet, while the Himalayas in 
their loftiest peak, Mount Everest, rise to the 
prodigious height of 29,000 feet, nearly equiva- 
lent to live Mount Washingtons one above an- 
other, like the classic "Ossa piled on Pelion." 

[164] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

But all these fall short of Mount Calvary, 
upon which the eyes of the whole world can be 
fixed spiritually at one time. Like England's 
drum-beat which can be heard round the globe, 
it can be seen round the earth. There is no 
place where it is not visible to the eye of faith. 
All Christendom is looking unto Calvary. Pa- 
gan lands are turning their eyes more and more 
to the same holy mount, since in it is help for 
sinful, guilty mankind. The cross makes an 
appeal to the human heart altogether unique, 
and Mount Calvary contains the cross. 

Going in 1907 from a stay of five months in 
California, we were eager to see on our line of 
railway a height, whose sheltered, shaded ra- 
vines are such, that a vast white cross of 
unmelted snow, 1500 feet by 500, appears with 
great distinctness on the sloping mountain. The 
sight in a book of scenery inspired Longfellow 
to write, 

' ' There is a mountain in the distant West 
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines 
Displays a cross of snow upon its side. ' ' 

Calvary is a mountain, whose most conspicuous 
characteristic is the cross of redemption, which 
it bears, so to speak, deeply imbedded in its 
rock-ribbed sides, and which is thrilling the 
hearts of humanity with hope and gladness. 
This, and not that yonder rising so superbly 
among the Rockies, is the true "Mountain of 
the Holy Cross.' ' Looking, therefore, unto 

[165] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

Calvary's Mount, each of us can say with a 
sacred poet, 

' ' Here I would for ever stay, 
Weep and gaze my soul away; 
Thou art heaven on earth to me, 
Lovely, mournful Calvary ! ' ' 

Zion, Olivet, Calvary, how they tower one 
above the other, constituting a very Presiden- 
tial range like that of which New Hampshire 
people so proudly speak, or being, as the Bible 
says, veritable "mountains of God." They 
give us three mighty ranges of truth, leading 
us out of the valley of perplexing care and 
chafing sin to the mount of reposeful worship, 
to the mount of uplook into the sky — of com- 
munion with the heavenly, and to the mount of 
peace through the blood of the cross. These 
are what Bunyan in his delightful imagery 
would call Delectable Mountains, and may we 
walk more and more in this Beulah Land of 
commanding heights, of inspiring truths, of 
Alpine altitudes with the cross dominating all. 

"In the cross of Christ I glory, 

Towering o 'er the wrecks of time, 
All the light of sacred story 

Gathers round its head sublime. ' ' 

These are religious heights more sublime than 
the intellectual to which Henry Cabot Lodge, in 
the recent dedication of the Widener library 
building at Harvard, said we could rise through 
the medium of the noble books now so royally 

[166] 



Mountains Round About Jerusalem 

housed at Cambridge. The Massachusetts 
senator is always most happy in his classical 
allusions, and he has a charm of literary ex- 
pression all his own, and he is equally felicitous 
in his wide-range quotations, as he was on this 
University occasion when he recalled these lines 
that are also capable of a spiritual application : 

' ' O, let me leave the plains behind, 
And let me leave the vales below! 
Into the highlands of the mind, 
Into the mountains let me go. 

' ' Here are the heights, crest beyond crest, 
With Himalayan dews impearled; 
And I will watch from Everest 

The long heave of the surging world. ' ' 



[167] 



XI 

EAGLES AND STOEKS 



XI 

EAGLES AND STOKKS 

Having been for some time in high mountain 
altitudes, we naturally proceed from this point 
of elevation to a flight into the air in a consid- 
eration of some of the denizens thereof. In 
making a necessary selection here, we take 
eagles and storks as being the most imperial 
fliers. 

The eagle has been called the king of birds, 
as the lion has been named king of beasts. Two 
of the greatest nations of modern times have 
therefore made them national emblems. We 
talk of the British lion, and of the great Amer- 
ican eagle. Indeed various countries have 
adopted the eagle; the illustrious Napoleon 
could find nothing more suitable for his beloved 
France. Even as far back as the Caesars, the 
Eoman eagles were the standards borne every- 
where by the victorious legions. Jeremiah said, 
"swifter than the eagles," as he admired their 
rapid flight. Solomon was struck with the 
height to which they rise, "like an eagle that 
flieth toward heaven.' ' Job referred to their 
power of vision, their eyes beholding the prey 
"afar off." 

Striking characteristics these are, but storks 

[171] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

are a close second, if they do not stand first, 
for majestic flight. From Africa, when the 
spring comes, they are said to fly without once 
alighting across the entire Mediterranean and 
over the whole of Europe far above the Alps 
to their northern nesting-places in Holland and 
Denmark and elsewhere. European travellers 
are always interested in them, and in their 
nests, built preferably on towers or ruined cas- 
tles or lofty roofs. The stork is sacred to the 
city of Strasburg, from which no American 
should go without first seeing it, either domes- 
ticated in some enclosure or perched in statu- 
esque fashion on some high chimney. As he 
sees it, he thinks of the long distance it has 
flown, and of its returning year after year to 
the same place, till it is recognized as an old 
friend. In Venice, it is the pigeons of St. 
Mark's, which are fed and loved, and even the 
stranger receives their friendly overtures in 
expectation of being given some dainty to eat. 
One of them actually alighted on my head, on 
my hat, when it was my privilege to see them 
in the Italian city which has adopted them as 
peculiarly her own. As they rise from the 
public square in graceful flight toward the top 
of the Campanile, and to the heights where they 
have their homes, you feel like exclaiming with 
the Psalmist, "Oh that I had wings like a 
dove ! Then would I fly away and be at rest. ' ' 
But in Strasburg it was the storks which our 
guide felt that we must see before continuing 

[172] 



Eagles and Storks 

our journey from that point. In their ability 
to fly so high and so far, they suggest to us a 
comparison with souls, of which we may say 
with Zechariah in a different connection, * ' The 
wind was in their wings ; now they had wings 
like the wings of a stork.' ' In other words, 
as spiritual beings we are peculiarly fitted for 
flight. 

We are taught this no less by the eagle. No 
one appreciated better the royal bearing of this 
bird than Moses, who must have often seen it 
in the wilderness, and amid the crags and peaks 
so familiar to his sight. If one thing more than 
another constitutes it a king, or gives it queenly 
preeminence, that single distinguishing trait is 
indicated by this Old Testament writer when he 
says: 

"As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, 
That fluttereth over her young, 
He spread abroad his wings, he took them, 
He bare them on his pinions. " 

The mother bird drives her young from the 
nest, she wants them to learn to fly. Their 
wings would never gain strength without use. 
They must venture out. They dread to start, 
but they cannot always be fed; they must get 
their own living, and especially must know what 
an independent life is, and so they are thrust 
out to do for themselves. The parental treat- 
ment of them does seem hard at first. The nest 
is away up in some cliff, and the eaglets are 
pushed from the nursery in the lofty rock, and 
they go falling through the air. 

[173] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

There they come from a height of hundreds 
of feet, down, down, down. They spread their 
tiny wings, and mount up a little. They fold 
their pinions unconsciously, and again they 
begin to descend toward the bottom of the 
chasm. They make another attempt to fly, and 
by vigorous beating of the atmosphere they 
manage to ascend somewhat. Before they are 
fully aware of it, they cease their motions 
(for they do not have the stroke yet), and they 
are falling once more. All the time they are 
nearing the hard rocks at the foot of the cliff, 
and can it be that the parent bird will let them 
have their life dashed out far below? By no 
means; she has watched their feeble efforts 
with keenest interest. She has sailed round 
and round just above them, hovering over them, 
ready for any emergency. When she sees they 
are quite exhausted, she swoops under them 
with broad, extended wings, catches them up 
thereon, till they are rested a little, and have 
gained some confidence. Then she flies from 
beneath them, and leaves them for a while to 
their own exertions. She keeps close above 
them, and at any indication of failing strength 
she darts under them to stay them up again. 
This is continued, till the eaglets are able to 
soar away into the blue vault to be lost to sight. 
It was well that their nest was stirred up, other- 
wise they would never have risen toward the 
sun. If they were never made to struggle in 
midair, they would never learn to fly. 

[174] 



Eagles and Storks 

Strenuous effort has been shown to be true 
of the very bee as a preliminary to any accom- 
plishment. There is an illustration of this by 
F. B. Meyer, not before me for the moment, 
but its substance is readily recalled. The sweet 
maker of honey in its embryotic state is en- 
closed in a cell over which is a capsule of wax. 
Like the chick through the egg-shell, it must 
work its way out by pushing and struggling. 
Its gauze-like wings, which are bound to its 
sides, are loosened in the very process of break- 
ing through the confining membrane. The op- 
posing capsule is a blessing in disguise. A bee- 
keeper tells of a moth gaining entrance to a 
hive and eating off the wax capsules, until the 
bees had the easy time of simply walking out 
of their cells, but they were wingless, and were 
stung to death by their fellows, and were thrust 
out as useless. They could unfold wings only 
by much striving for freedom. 

Discipline answers the same purpose for 
souls. With wings thus developed they can 
triumph over every adverse influence. By bat- 
tling with storms they can rise above the same, 
with divine assistance. God is the eagle, for in 
Exodus we read of him, "I bear you on eagles' 
wings.' ' We are the eaglets whom he thrusts 
forth to our own endeavors, while yet he flut- 
ters over us, and gives us helpful lifts when 
needed. 

We might apply this all to a family in vari- 
ous circumstances, and we would see how fitting 

[175] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

the figure is. For instance, two young persons 
mate, leaving the old homestead. They marry, 
and start in the world for themselves. If they 
are thoughtful, they will have times of shrink- 
ing from entering upon wedlock. They have 
been so well provided for in the old home, they 
have been so happy there, that they almost 
tremble at the responsibilities of the new life 
they are contemplating. Shall they make the 
venture I Notwithstanding such musings, there 
is a mysterious power forcing them on and out 
of the former relations. And it is best that it 
should be so; it is not meant that we should 
always stay in the old nest. That would be 
against nature, and parents, much as they dis- 
like to have children leave them, feel after all 
that it must be so. Therefore, after a certain 
period of nurture a day comes, when there is a 
stir at the homestead. There is bustle, and 
excitement. Preparations are made for a mar- 
riage. Every one moves with a quick step 
about the house. There is laughter, and there 
are tears. 

Bureaus are ransacked, and trunks are 
packed. There are fitful embraces, and broken 
words. Friends arrive in rapid succession. 
The doorbell rings almost constantly. Eooms 
are crowded. A hush of expectancy is followed 
by a rustle of silk, and in the presence of the 
assembled guests vows of mutual love and 
fidelity are made. Congratulations are offered. 
Music floats through the rooms. A festive table 

[ 176 ] 



Eagles and Storks 

is spread. Twenty miles distant a train comes 
speeding on. It is ten miles nearer. Hurried 
good-byes are spoken. A carriage rolls away, 
the guests depart, and when all has become 
quiet, the change that has occurred is keenly 
realized. The words, "What therefore God 
hath joined together, let not man put asunder/ ' 
are irrevocable. It was God's doing. It was 
he, who stirred up that nest, and sent out into 
the world the twain made one. They are to 
make a nest for themselves, and they ought to 
build high. God is hovering over them to assist 
them upwards. There would not be so many 
families going down, down, down, if like eaglets 
they would send up their cry for help, if there 
were an atmosphere of prayer in the household, 
if family worship were maintained, if religion 
entered more into the domestic relations. 

That is what will give us the ideal home, like 
that pictured so fascinatingly by Robert Burns 
in that gem of Scottish literature, "The Cot- 
ter's Saturday Night:" 

' ' The clieerf u ' supper done, wi ' serious face, 
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide; 
The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, 
The big ha' -Bible, ance his father's pride: 
********* 

1 ' Then, kneeling down to heaven 's eternal King, 
The saint, the father, and the husband prays : 
Hope springs 'exulting on triumphal wing,' 

That thus they all shall meet in future days. ' ' 

The poet well comments, 

' ' From scenes like these old Scotia 's grandeur springs, 
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad. ' ' 

[ 177] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

For the avoiding of friction, for the quieting of 
the mind, for the composing of the heart, there 
is nothing like this seeking of help from above. 

The parent bird responds and bears up her 
young on her wings, and that is what God is 
willing to do for every family. When he stirs 
up the old home nest, and sends forth a young 
couple, he watches their course with tender 
sympathy, and if he sees them sinking under 
the weight of the new responsibilities, he is 
more than ready to outspread beneath them 
his pinions, and to bear them "as on eagles' 
wings. ' ' 

He would have them see the need of the spir- 
itual. They may become too much absorbed in 
the temporal. They may come to glory in their 
worldly life, in the money they are making, in 
the constancy with which they meet their round 
of secular duties, in the good time they are 
having. To quote from Horace BushnelPs 
famous sermon on Feet and Wings, "It is as 
if eagles had fallen out of their element and 
descended to be cranes, pleased that the legs 
they stand upon have grown so tall and trim, 
and are able to wade in such deep water,' ' 
whereas they might "soar as eagles do and 
burn their wings in the sun. ' ' Into that atmos- 
phere with its clear light and tranquil blue, we 
are to "mount up." God has given us the 
facilities for rising. Our eyes must be unto the 
hills, whence cometh the blessing. Of ourselves 
we are helpless. As another has said, 

[178] 



Eagles and Storks 

1 ' Our souls can neither fly nor go 
To reach eternal joys." 

That is true when we attempt the flight in 
our own strength, when we do not use the right 
instrumentalities, when our aspirations and 
endeavors are humanly presumptuous rather 
than divinely spiritual. There is such a thing 
as rising in our own self-sufficiency up to the 
very gates of heaven, only to be cast down 
therefrom. We should remember the truth 
pictured in the classical tale of Daedalus and 
Icarus, those first navigators of the air. They 
were imprisoned on an island, and all the ves- 
sels that plied the surrounding waters were 
closely watched to prevent their escape. The 
father saw no way to liberty except through the 
air, and accordingly he set about making wings 
for himself and his son. The boy gathered all 
the feathers he could find, and the parent with 
thread and wax put them together, giving them 
the shapely curvature of a bird's wings. 

When the work was completed, and when the 
wings were adjusted, the artist found that he 
could rise and poise himself in midair. He was 
delighted, and when he had equipped his son, 
and after he had charged him to take no rash 
flights, they sailed away, over the plowman who 
stopped his work to look in wonder, and over 
the shepherd who leaning on his staff gazed at 
them in astonishment, as they cleaved the at- 
mosphere like gods. The father arrived safely 
in Sicily, where he humbly worshipped in a tem- 

[179] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

pie. The boy, growing over confident, rose with 
the self-made wings toward heaven itself, and 
the blazing sun melting the wax he began rap- 
idly to fall from his great height, till he was 
engulfed in a sea, which henceforth bore his 
name, the Icarian Sea. 

If we would avoid the tragic fate of Icarus, 
we must not rashly attempt to rise to heaven 
with the waxen wings of self-sufficiency, for 
these will fail us in the searching, scorching 
light of the Sun of righteousness, and we shall 
be thrust down from the very gates of pearl. 
It is only by the wings of faith and prayer, by 
the stork's wings wherein is the wind, wherein 
alone is spiritual soaring power, that we can 
surely rise to the height of heaven, and enter 
therein. 

We have referred to the marital pairing of 
a couple, who next find a resting-place. They 
locate their nest, sometimes higher and some- 
times lower. Then the nest has to be feathered ; 
they want a comfortable home, and that is right. 
They make a success of life, and rent or build 
or buy a modern house. They have bright 
pictures on the wall, soft carpets or choice rugs 
on the floor. They have pretty ornaments, lux- 
urious chairs, and all that heart could wish. 
They are proud of their neat, cozy place. They 
have a well-kept lawn, handsome shade trees, 
and abundant fruit. They set a bounteous 
table. Could anything be pleasanter than a 
family thus situated? They have their nest 
nicely feathered. 

[180] 



Eagles and Storks 

But how often business reverses change all 
this! It is an exceptional household, which 
does not at some time in its history know what 
it is to be in cramped or at least reduced cir- 
cumstances. Domestic expenses have to be cut 
down. The table has to do without the usual 
luxuries. The piano, the fine chamber set, and 
other rich furnishings it may be, have to be 
sold. One thing after another, to which the 
heart clings on account of the associations, has 
to be disposed of, and perhaps the house itself 
at last has to be given over to inexorable 
creditors. 

How many a well-feathered nest has thus 
been stirred up by God, possibly not to so great 
an extent as this, and yet has been sadly ruffled 
in its interior arrangement. But the Lord does 
not afflict willingly; he does it for each family's 
profit. They may have built too low, not near 
enough heaven, and therefore Providence may 
have to go to the extreme of breaking up their 
home. He may cast them out upon the world 
almost if not quite penniless. They may have 
to start again, and at such a time he hovers 
very tenderly over them, and he would not have 
them despair. He wants them to rise to a new 
hope, to build higher. He is anxious to assist 
them in this, and though he has thrown them 
out as it were on nothingness, he is like the 
eagle which flutters affectionately over her 
brood, as, thrust from the nest, they struggle 
on the empty air, but are caught on parental 

[181] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

wing just when they need assistance most. God 
does pecuniarily disturb many a home, he stirs 
up the feathered nest, but he is close by to bear 
the occupants on extended pinions to a higher 
point, where they can get more of the light from 
heaven. Every family, whose home nest he in 
any measure has stripped of its feathers, of its 
resources, should realize the divine purpose 
in it, and be sustained by the grace that is 
sufficient. 

There is an opposite condition of things in 
which there is danger. The head of the house 
does not meet with adversity. On the contrary 
he is exceedingly prosperous. He is in the rush 
of business, amid its stress and strain. There 
are many annoyances and vexations, and he 
loses his equanimity of spirit. He becomes 
easily exasperated, until he is like "the fretful 
porcupine ' ' both at home and in his commercial 
dealings with others. He does not maintain an 
even disposition, a Christlike frame of mind. 
What is the way of escape I It is to get in touch 
with the divine, it is to rise to the higher alti- 
tudes, not always like the king of birds, one 
may not aspire quite as high as that, but at 
least like a humbler denizen of the air. The 
eagle is a rare bird, rara avis in the aviary of 
the Catskills where my childhood was spent. 
But the hawk resembling it is often seen, sail- 
ing round and round in graceful circles at a 
considerable height, with wings that are not 
noisily flapped, that are rather held in steady 

[182] 



Eagles and Storks 

poise, awakening the wonder of every boy, who 
can never cease admiring its aerial flight far 
above his head. John Burroughs, in speaking 
of its calmness and dignity when pursued by 
crows or kingbirds, writes as follows: "He 
seldom deigns to notice his noisy and furious 
antagonist, but deliberately wheels about in 
that aerial spiral, and mounts and mounts till 
his pursuers grow dizzy and return to earth 
again. It is quite original, this mode of getting 
rid of an unworthy opponent, rising to heights 
where the braggart is dazed and bewildered 
and loses his reckoning. I'm not sure but it 
is worthy of imitation. ' ' It certainly is. When 
one has become nervous and unduly sensitive, 
and suffers from exasperating hits and attacks, 
there is nothing like the calm of the upper 
air to restore a proper and most desirable 
equilibrium. 

No home, to proceed to another point, is com- 
plete without children. They are the birdlings 
for which the nest is designed. How much a 
babe is like a bird, it opens its mouth for every- 
thing, and there everything has to go. Stand 
over a brood of young birds, and make a noise, 
and the only thing they think of is to have their 
mouths filled, and they stretch up their necks, 
and wait for some delicious morsel to drop. 
That is infants right over again, they imagine 
everything is for their mouths. As they grow 
older, they become still more interesting. They 
begin to chirp and twitter, and soon the nest 

[183] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

is full of melody. A happy household is that 
which has small children. They bring cheer 
and comfort. They are indeed more or less 
care, they have to be provided for, their wants 
are innumerable, and yet what a joy they are ! 
But this happiness is not infrequently dis- 
turbed. Everything may be moving tranquilly 
along, all is serene felicity, when suddenly there 
is a whir, and a rushing of wings, and a darling 
child is taken. God has stirred up the nest, 
and what a commotion there is ! It practically 
breaks up the home; an adjustment to a new 
condition of things is necessary; the family is 
all at sea, only it is on a great aerial ocean, 
and they feel themselves sinking, sinking, until 
they cry to God in their distress. Thereupon 
they find that he is hovering directly over 
them, and when their strength is about to 
fail, they feel his wings beneath. The affliction 
does them good. When they get settled again 
in their domestic life, it is on a higher plane, 
at a greater spiritual elevation, and they are 
surprised to see how much nearer heaven they 
are. They are lifted by the wings of the Al- 
mighty to a more sublime height of religious 
experience. God hears the cry of his children, 
and bears them up, lest they be dashed upon 
the stones. The home is not stirred up for 
nothing. Every time it is visited with trouble, 
there are divine pinions to sustain and carry 
aloft, and only those, who will not take advan- 
tage of the proffered help, sink till they are 

[184] 



Eagles and Storks 

self-destroyed. Foolish eaglets they would be 
to ignore the helpful wings of the parent bird. 
Their fate would be to go to the bottom of the 
chasm. But let them accept assistance, and 
how they soar upward ! Likewise, says Isaiah, 
"they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength; they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles." 

Once more God stirs up the nest. If the 
young couple we have pictured beginning life 
together, and passing through its varied scenes, 
meet discipline in the right spirit, they will be 
lifted each time a little higher. With trying 
experiences they will feel that they are growing 
old, as they are, but to the heavenly Father 
they will always be children. "Even to hoar 
hairs,' ' he says, "will I carry you." He will 
care for them as the eagle cares for her young, 
and that, too, at the very last. There will come 
an hour when the rushing plumes will sweep 
through their home again, and they themselves 
shall be taken, and they shall be driven out to 
try the unseen realities of eternity. But even 
there, they shall not be forsaken. For them 
judgment to come will have no terrors. Christ, 
as Paul says, will be their Passover, a word of 
comforting significance when analyzed, Pass- 
over, and when taken in connection with the 
ornithological illustration of a prophet, who 
says, "As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts 
protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver 
it, he will pass over and preserve it." The 

[185] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

Lord with fluttering pinions, as it were, will 
hover over his redeemed children in the pres- 
ence of his Spirit, with the wings of the celes- 
tial dove, with the solicitous affection of the 
mother bird flying to and fro just above her 
young for their defense and protection and 
help. There will be heard chanted in the sky 
by all the holy angels as they come the inspired 
song: 

1 ' He shall cover thee with his pinions, 
And under his wings shalt thou take refuge. ' ' 

Ultimately those wings shall be placed under 
the Lord's beloved, who shall be taken up still 
higher, this time even to be received out of 
sight in the sky above. The eagle will have 
borne them to their native element. They will 
have been "caught up," says an apostle, "in 
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." Then 
can each sing with the sacred poet, 

' 1 1 thank thee for the wing of love, 
Which stirred my worldly nest; 
And for the stormy clouds which drove 
The flutterer to thy breast. ' ' 

We can rise to this final height of heaven, 
only as the wind is in our wings, only as soar- 
ing power is imparted to us, only as we have 
' ' wings like the wings of a stork. ' ' Says Jere- 
miah, "The stork in the heavens knoweth her 
appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the 
swallow and the crane observe the time of their 
coming." As surely as the migratory instinct 

[186] 



Eagles and Storks 

of the first here named leads it from darkest 
Africa to its nest in fairer Europe, in a better 
and more genial clime, though bewildering 
sometimes may seem the blackness of the storm 
encountered in the passage, so certainly, how- 
ever uncharted may seem the way, shall the 
"home of the soul" be eventually reached by 
the immortal spirit that follows the divine im- 
pulse, the holy aspiration, planted in the human 
breast. We can not better close than with this 
thought as set forth by Bryant in his ' ' Ode to 
a Waterfowl : ' ' 

' ' Thou art gone, the abyss of heaven 

Hath swallowed up thy form, but on my heart 
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
And shall not soon depart. 

' ' He who, from zone to zone, 

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone, 
Will lead my steps aright. ' ' 



[187] 



XII 

SOME STRIKING CONSTELLATIONS 



XII 

SOME STRIKING CONSTELLATIONS 

We are very much inclined to have the con- 
tracted vision of the terrestrial. We do not 
get the sweep of the celestial. We are like 
Bunyan's famous character, who was always 
using his muck rake, who never lifted his eyes 
from the ground to the sky. That was good 
advice given by Emerson when he said, ' ' Hitch 
your wagon to a star." We can do this in a 
consideration of some striking constellations 
which once attracted the attention of a sage 
in the orient. It was Job who said, 

' ' Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, 
Or loose the bands of Orion ? 

Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? 
Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train V 

The significance of these words is not readily 
determined. There is a diversity of views, and 
we may not be able to arrive at absolutely cor- 
rect conclusions. However, our motto, which 
any High- school or College class might well 
adopt, will be the Latin phrase, Per aspera ad 
astra, Through difficulties to the stars. We will 
indulge in some astral reflections. We will learn 
some true lessons that are easily deducible 
from the patriarch's language, whether they 

[191] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

were in his mind or not. He turned his eyes 
heavenward, and received religious instruction 
from the starry beauty which he saw. What- 
ever constellation he viewed, he was impressed 
with the majesty and glory of God. 

He first propounded the inquiry, i l Canst thou 
bind the cluster of the Pleiades ?" The margin 
says, the " chain' ' of the Pleiades, while the 
rendering of the common version is, ' i sweet in- 
fluences.' ' You remember the classic origin of 
this constellation. Seven sisters were pursued 
by an enemy, and in their fright and distress 
they cried for help from above. In answer to 
their prayer they were changed into a flock of 
doves, and were borne away to the sky where 
as bright orbs they still shine. They were not 
cruelly separated by death. They were forever 
united on high, and their glory has been sung 
ever since. 

The eastern poets have called them a "bril- 
liant rosette," and who but God could arrange 
the beautiful petals'? Tennyson sees them 
"tangled in a silver braid," and who but God 
could weave the charming web in which they 
are caught? Job represents the cluster as 
linked together, and who but God could make 
this chain? What is the chain? Pope tells us 
in his Essay on Man: 

"Look round our world; behold the chain of love 
Combining all below and all above, 
See plastic nature working to this end, 
The single atoms each to other tend, 
Attract, attracted to, the next in place, 
Formed and impelled its neighbor to embrace. " 

[192] 



Some Striking Constellations 

Nature's chain in plain prose is none other 
than the law of gravitation. By this the Plei- 
ades are bound together, and Job stands rever- 
ential before the mighty, divine force, and chal- 
lenges human power to accomplish any thing 
so grand. * ' Canst thou bind the cluster of the 
Pleiades ?" Canst thou give that cohesive 
force, by which they are united in a splendid 
constellation? 

The ancients counted seven Pleiads. As only 
six are conspicuous, visible to the ordinary eye- 
sight, there has been a discussion regarding a 
"lost Pleiad/ ' but astronomers tell us that all 
are there which have ever been there. Perhaps 
in the clear, oriental sky, the Biblical writer 
could see seven. For that matter, very keen 
eyes now can see eleven, and to telescopic 
vision about four hundred appear. With this 
enlargement of the number to modern knowl- 
edge, still more impressive is the fact that all 
these are held together by a strong chain. Then 
when we consider that this same law of gravity 
runs through the whole sidereal system, through 
the entire universe, we feel increasingly the 
almightiness of Him, who by one simple prin- 
ciple of attraction and repulsion harmoniously 
balances in infinite space such countless 
worlds. 

So nice is the adjustment, that, as we are all 
aware, it led in 1846 to the discovery of the 
giant planet of the solar system. It was found 
that Uranus swayed a little, so to speak, to 

[193] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

this side and to that. From these slight vari- 
ations it was confidently believed that there was 
another world attracting it besides Jupiter and 
Saturn. The exact place in which this disturb- 
ing globe must be was calculated, and telescopes 
were turned upon the locality indicated, and 
there it was, magnificent Neptune, never before 
having been given a local habitation and a 
name. Was there ever such exactness of 
construction? 

Canst thou make a chain like this, running 
through all nature? Is there any thing like 
universal gravity which comes within the re- 
motest possibilities of human ability to accom- 
plish? Beneficent law is at work everywhere, 
giving us seed-time and harvest, giving us cer- 
tainties upon which we can depend. We have 
the assurance that God is over all his works. 
Not a material atom is beyond his control, not 
a sparrow falleth to the ground without his 
notice. His providential government is coex- 
tensive with his law of gravitation. He maketh 
all things work together for good to his chil- 
dren. Sweet influences are these which are 
operating, and which are suggested by the union 
of the seven sisters in the sky, by the cluster 
of the Pleiades, by the chain which binds them 
together. In this thought we get an explana- 
tion of the patriarch's wonderful trust. He 
bowed submissively and gladly before him who 
made the marvelous chain of nature and of 
providence. 

[194] 



Some Striking Constellations 

A second question is, " Canst thou loose the 
bands of Orion? " Orion, in Grecian mythol- 
ogy, was a giant. He was so tall that he could 
wade through the deepest seas, and still have 
his shoulders above the water, and on land his 
head, as it were, brushed the clouds. Says 
Virgil in the ^Eneid : 

' ' Like tall Orion stalking o 'er the flood, 
When with his brawny breast he cuts the waves; 
His shoulders scarce the topmost billow laves. " 

He was noted for his wickedness, and as a 
punishment, according to one interpretation, he 
was chained in the sky. The inspired writer 
may have seen in the fable of his being bound 
there pictorial proclamation of the folly of sin, 
and of the wickedness of rebellion against the 
Almighty. Canst thou loose the bands of 
Orion? Canst thou swing the stars out of their 
course? Nay, they are fixed in their orbits. 
God holds them steadily to their appointed cir- 
cuit. Natural law is resistless. Orion has 
never broken away from the bounds by which 
he was first circumscribed. He has not been 
able to burst the fetters. He is securely 
fastened. 

Here, too, we need to remember that to the 
scholarship of to-day Orion is vastly more than 
to the Oriental mind. The gigantic warrior of 
old has not only a triangle of small stars to 
form his head, but three very bright orbs are 
in his belt. Never was another so brilliantly 

[195] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

belted as to have three enormous suns in his 
girdle. He likewise has a nebula all his own, 
as a kind of private possession. In short, a 
whole cluster of stars go to form this constel- 
lation. Nevertheless Orion, though so vast, is 
not independent of the rest of the universe. He 
is rigidly bound to a definite place. The Giant 
is forever bound by the hand of Omnipotence. 
When God shall bind the sinner what prospect 
can there ever be of a release? Chained Orion 
gives solemn warning of the certain doom 
awaiting the finally impenitent. 

Divine law will be as unvarying and unyield- 
ing as natural, and when we see how unalter- 
able the latter is we cannot hope to fly the orbit 
of permanency of character, into which we are 
gradually settling. There is that giant constel- 
lation just where it was seen four thousand 
years ago! Canst thou loose its bands'? No 
more canst thou free thyself when thou hast 
been bound hand and foot by the cords of in- 
iquity. If the Pleiades speak of light and glad- 
ness, Orion speaks of gloom and sadness. 
Hence the prophet Amos says, ' ' Seek him that 
maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth 
the shadow of death into the morning, and 
maketh the day dark with night." He does 
both, brings sunshine to the righteous, and 
shadow to the wicked. There are the sweet 
influences of the Pleiades, and there are the 
bands of Orion. There are benevolent and 
there are malevolent forces at work. We can 

[196] 



Some Striking Constellations 

be victims of the latter, or we can have our 
interests subserved by the former. 

Our view takes a wider range with the next 
question, ' ' Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth 
in their season V 9 The Marginal reading is, 
"The signs of the Zodiac." Twelve constella- 
tions were and are included in this belt, which in 
a sense sweeps the circle. That is, God is omni- 
present. He is not confined in his agency to 
a single constellation, but he is in the wheeling 
and blazing constellations to the utmost bounds 
of space. Do we appreciate what that means'? 

Consider how perfectly vast the universe is. 
The telescope resolves the Milky Way and other 
nebulous appearances into thousands of flash- 
ing worlds. Where one star appears to the 
naked eye, let hundreds of orbs flash forth, and 
we begin to get what the situation is. About 
one hundred million suns have so far shone 
upon the scientifically enlarged vision according 
to the astronomer Young, while Professor New- 
comb said, that if we could perfect a sufficiently 
large telescope, the number probably would be 
found to be "hundreds of millions.' 9 

Some of these are so far away, that, though 
they are speeding on at the rate of thirty to 
fifty miles a second, they do not during the life- 
time of one of us change their apparent loca- 
tion in the least. Observe yonder fixed star, 
note exactly where it is. Now follow one of 
earth's most renowned men through his whole 
career. He is born, he grows to years of ma- 

[197] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

turity, he has his struggles, his defeats and 
victories, he makes a great name in history, 
he reaches his four-score limit, and dies. Turn 
again the eyes to the star noticed at his birth. 
So distant is it, that it has not shifted its posi- 
tion a single iota, so far as can be with tele- 
scopes even detected. And yet it has been shoot- 
ing on with a velocity in comparison with which 
our swiftest express train moves at a snail's 
pace, a mile a minute as compared with thirty 
to fifty miles a second, while the flight of Arc- 
turus is said to exceed two hundred miles a 
second. 

When Napoleon wished to inspire his soldiers 
in Egypt, he said impressively, "From yonder 
Pyramids forty centuries look down upon you. " 
Yonder are glittering suns, whose light, as it 
strikes your eyes at present, is older than the 
Pyramids. Though it has been travelling 186,- 
000 miles a second, it has been on its way to 
the earth longer than the historic period of the 
race. Now all these rolling spheres at such 
immense distances whirl on in regular succes- 
sion. They preserve an orderly march through 
infinity, because God is everywhere directing 
and controlling. With what significance the 
question recurs, i i Canst thou lead forth the Maz- 
zaroth in their season ?" Canst thou exercise a 
potent influence upon the whole Zodiac? God 
can and does. Thinkest thou, then, that thou 
canst escape his all-seeing eyes? Our answer 
must be that of the Psalmist, "Whither shall 

[198] 



Some Striking Constellations 

I go from thy spirit! or whither shall I flee 
from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, 
thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, be- 
hold, thou art there. ' ' God will be to us either 
light or darkness, either the sweet influences 
of the Pleiades or the bands of Orion. There 
is no escaping him, for he sweeps the whole 
Zodiac with his spiritual presence. 

There is one more inquiry, ' ' Canst thou guide 
the Bear with her train V We might ask in 
this connection, in view of a recent astronomical 
appearance which challenged the attention of the 
world, " Canst thou guide Halley's comet ?" 
On January 14, 1742, died the astronomer who 
at the early age of twenty-four made himself 
celebrated by his prediction that the comet, 
which since has properly borne his name, would 
return long after his death on schedule time, 
and it did. Here is a wanderer in space, into 
whose depths it speeds to such a distance that 
seventy-five years are reqired to complete its 
circuit. It recedes three thousand million miles 
from the sun, and after it rounds its goal it 
comes rushing back and down its track toward 
our earth at the rate of two and a half million 
miles every day. But though it traverses a 
distance so vast and with a velocity that almost 
takes our breath away, its return after three- 
quarters of a century can be foretold with 
measurable accuracy, even to the very year, 
because it is guided on its course by the eternal 
God. Art thou civil engineer enough to mark 

[199] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

out a course like that, canst thou guide Halley 's 
comet f 

To revert to the Scriptural question, ' ' Canst 
thou guide the Bear with her train ?" This 
to us is the Dipper, so clearly outlined in the 
sky that all of us can see it there very plainly. 
To us it resembles this humble utensil more than 
it does the animal after which it was named 
by antiquity. But we must keep the viewpoint 
of the Orient in the present consideration of 
Ursa Major. Here, too, seems to be primarily 
a classic reference. 

A maiden was fated to be changed into a 
bear, but when in her misfortune she was about 
to be shot by a hunter, she was snatched away 
from death by the deity whose mercy she had 
implored, to become the constellation of the 
Great Bear. She continued to be followed by 
her implacable enemy of earth, who begged that 
she might never be allowed to set like other 
stars in the ocean. The request could be 
granted with wisdom and kindness, for why 
should she ever desire to sink so low again? 
She never was to go below the horizon, and 
that is her peculiar glory. This constellation 
never does set. Or, as Homer says after men- 
tioning the Pleiades, and Orion, 

' ' And the Bear near him, called by some the Wain, 
That, wheeling, keeps Orion still in sight, 
Yet bathes not in the waters of the sea." 

In other words, this constellation ever shines. 

[200] 



Some Striking Constellations 

God makes it circle in splendor forever above 
the horizon. So it is with redeemed souls that 
have been translated. It might be supposed a 
deprivation for them never to be permitted to 
return to this earth of sin and sorrow, and to 
what Shakespeare calls the "sea of troubles" 
here. But it is far better for them to be re- 
moved from this mundane sphere, where they 
are in danger of becoming brutish and de- 
graded, — it is far better to be translated to the 
heavens, where there is "no more sea," and 
where they shall "shine as the brightness of 
the firmament," says Daniel, and "as the stars 
for ever and ever." Such a glorious future 
can come from none but Christ, "who only hath 
immortality," says Paul, "dwelling in light 
unapproachable." Canst thou guide the Bear 
with her train? Canst thou make the constel- 
lation that never sets 1 Canst thou confer upon 
thyself a splendid immortality'? No, but thou 
canst attain unto this through faith in the Risen 
One. If any will lead a Christlike life, if they 
will let their light shine on earth, they shall 
shine forever, they shall never go below the 
horizon. Most truly says a poet : 

' ' The shining firmament shall fade, 

And sparkling stars resign their light; 
But these shall know nor change nor shade, 
For ever fair, for ever bright. " 

It is only a few samples of constellations 
which we have been contemplating, and we 
might study them ad infinitum. They are 

[201] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

blazing away to the outermost bounds of space. 
We can never say what the ancients said of 
the Pillars of Hercules, our Gibraltar, "Ne plus 
ultra, ' ' nothing more beyond. Even then there 
was a beyond in undiscovered islands and con- 
tinents, for the Americas were yet lying in 
quiet seclusion, and there had not been so much 
as dreamings of the North and South Poles, 
which have yielded up their secrets to our age. 
Much more is there a beyond in a universe, 
which must ever expand to the student of as- 
tronomy. The farther we might go, the more 
would we be awed. We might as well stop here 
as anywhere. 

We cannot conclude better than in the words 
of the German author, Jean Paul Richter, when 
he vividly represented the feelings of a disem- 
bodied human spirit on an imaginary tour with 
angels through endless space. Let me indicate 
parts of the niarvelous journey which they are 
pictured as having taken: "Sometimes with 
the solemn flight of angel wings they passed 
through Zaharas of darkness, * * * sometimes 
they swept over frontiers that were quickening 
under prophetic motions from God. * * * In 
a moment the rushing of planets was upon 
them; in a moment the blazing of suns was 
around them. * * * Without measure were the 
architraves, past number were the archways, 
beyond memory the gates. Within were stairs 
that scaled the eternities around. * * * Sud- 
denly, as they thvs rode from infinite to infinite, 

[202] 



Some Striking Constellations 

suddenly as they thus tilted over abysmal 
worlds, a mighty cry arose that systems more 
mysterious, that worlds more billowy, other 
heights and other depths, were coming, were 
nearing, were at hand. Then the man sighed 
and stopped, shuddered and wept. His over- 
laden heart uttered itself in tears, and he said, 
' Angel, I will go no farther; for the spirit of 
man acheth with this infinity. Insufferable is 
the glory of God. Let me * * * hide me * * * 
for end I see there is none.' " 



[203] 



XIII 

THE TEMPLE EXPANDING ROUND US 
TO INFINITY 



XIII 

THE TEMPLE EXPANDING BOUND US 
TO INFINITY 

Theee have been many fine temples erected 
on the earth. We have admired St. Paul's in 
London, that architectural masterpiece of Sir 
Christopher Wren, and the Spanish cathedral 
at Seville, with its picturesque vistas through 
graceful arches. We have stood before that 
noble Gothic structure at Cologne, with its 
massive and soaring twin towers, and before 
the Milan cathedral with its multitudinous pin- 
nacles and statues. We have had our attention 
enthralled by St. Mark's at Venice, with its 
splendid mosaics and its exquisite color effects, 
and by St. Peter's in Borne, the most spacious 
and the grandest cathedral of Christendom. 
We have felt the venerableness of St. Sophia 
in Constantinople, erected by Justinian away 
back in the fifth century, long the metropolitan 
church of the Greeks, but since 1453 a Moham- 
medan mosque. 

We have been deeply impressed by pagan 
temples, by the Pantheon of Rome completed 
27 B.C., with its unequalled dome in which is 
a circular opening twenty-eight feet in diam- 
eter, giving it its only light. We have been held 

[207] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

entranced by the Parthenon on the Acropolis 
at Athens, dating from the middle of the fifth 
century before our era, and surpassing in clas- 
sic beauty any other building on the face of 
the globe. We have gone to the site of Old 
Thebes in Egypt, and we have been amazed at 
Karnak, begun at least 2,500 and perhaps 2,700 
years before Christ, and being larger than any 
other edifice constructed by human hands for 
divine worship, with an extreme length of 1,200 
feet, nearly a quarter of a mile. 

Perhaps the imagination has been most 
struck by Solomon's temple, and we have gone 
to the top of Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem just to 
see its site, where now stands the attractive 
mosque of Omar, or the Dome of the Rock. 
This Old Testament house of worship must 
have been magnificent. Not that it was so very 
large, being only 105 feet long and 35 wide. 
But the material and the work were of the most 
expensive kind. The timbers were cut and some 
of the stones were quarried in a distant coun- 
try, from which they had to be floated to Joppa 
by way of the ocean, and thence transferred 
overland. Laborers to the number of 183,000 
were employed, and seven years were required 
to complete the building. 

The second temple here, of the time of the 
restoration from Babylon, was not so imposing 
a structure as the great original. That of 
Herod the Great, however, frequented by the 
Lord and disciples, must have rivalled Solo- 

[208] 



The Temple Expanding 

moil's. There were employed upon it 18,000 
workmen, with 1,000 wagons to do the hauling, 
and for forty-six years it was in process of 
erection. From Josephus, who had seen it, we 
learn that it had pillars between thirty and 
forty feet high, each being an entire stone of 
white marble, and so thick that to span it there 
were required three men with extended arms. 
The gates were plated with gold, and they 
swung on hinges of the same precious metal. 
The roof was covered with one mass of golden 
spikes. On a door was carved a golden vine 
with clusters of grapes, a single bunch being 
as large as a man. In fact, the temple was so 
glorious, that at the rising of the sun, says the 
Jewish historian, it ' l reflected back a very fiery 
splendor," which forced people to "turn their 
eyes away, just as they would have done at the 
sun's own rays." At a distance, he adds, it 
appeared "like a mountain covered with snow; 
for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, 
they were exceeding white. ' ' 

But all these temples, which we have been 
recalling, were inferior to what William Cullen 
Bryant conceived of when he said, 

"The groves were God's first temples," 

while he continued, 

"Father, thy hand 
Hath reared these venerable columns, thou 
Didst weave this verdant roof. ' ' 

There is a still more impressive conception 

[209] 



Biblical Nature Studies 
than this, indicated by the sacred poet who said, 

' ' O thou, whose own vast temple stands, 
Built over earth and sea. " 

Professor Park of Andover in picturing this 
said, it "has the stars for the gilding of its 
roof, and mines of gold for the pillars that 
sustain its floor, and the rose and the lily and 
the jessamine ever renewing themselves in the 
carpet that blooms for us to tread upon while 
we are walking through the temple, resonant as 
its wide spaces are with the hymns of the forest, 
and the eternal anthem of the waves of the 
sea." The thought of Solomon rose to a still 
greater and more sublime height, when at the 
dedication of his own matchless house he said, 
"Will God in very deed dwell on the earth! 
behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can- 
not contain thee ; how much less this house that 
I have builded ! ' ' The various particulars here 
indicated will be followed out under suggestion 
from the astronomical figure employed. Under 
guidance from "Ecce Coelum," and various 
works on astronomy we will traverse the stellar 
regions. Each of us will doubtless be moved 
to exclaim with Kepler under similar circum- 
stances, "0 Almighty God, I am thinking thy 
thoughts after thee!" 

The first item is, "Will God in very deed 
dwell on the earth?" The idea is that this 
globe of ours is not a worthy abode for his 
glorious Majesty. And yet this earth is sug- 

[210] 



The Temple Expanding 

gestive of much that is grand. Its 25,000 miles 
of circumference cannot be traversed under 
several weeks. Jules Verne's work, "Around 
the World in Eighty Days," was considered a 
wonder in the last century. It of course was 
written as fiction, and very fictitious did its 
implied claim seem to be. In his generation 
only the wildest imagination could conceive of 
so long a journey being taken in such a short 
period. The time, however, in 1911 in a test 
trip was cut in two and a little more by actual 
accomplishment, the journey having been really 
made in thirty-nine days and a fraction. In 
1913 four days were clipped even from this 
record, by using the fastest express trains and 
the swiftest steamship lines, with flying auto- 
mobiles to make the connections. Nevertheless 
this shorter time speaks of vast distances trav- 
elled. In simply crossing our country from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, we are impressed with 
the length of time taken, four days and four 
nights, clipping it along every minute, never 
relaxing our speed except for the change of 
cars in Chicago. Continue this nine times as 
long as the transcontinental journey takes, and 
you make the circuit of our globe, and you begin 
to get some idea of how immense this terrestrial 
ball is. 

Its size may also be realized by an astronom- 
ical illustration. We admire our full moon, and 
we realize its largeness when we are informed 
that the entire lunar surface is nearly as ex- 

[211] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

tensive as North and South America combined. 
But this earth at the distance of our satellite 
would appear to an observer fourteen times 
larger than our full moon. Ours, therefore, is 
considerable of a planet. But it is thought 
suitable only for God 's ' ' footstool, ' ' which it is 
called in the Bible. As we reflect upon its con- 
tinents and oceans, its forests and rivers, its 
mountains and lakes, its springing flowers and 
singing birds, we are amazed at its vastness and 
beauty, while yet the intimation is that it is 
not a fit habitation for the King of kings, for 
the Creator of the universe. 

The next thought is that the " heaven' y can- 
not contain God. By this would seem to be 
meant the nearer heavenly bodies; those, for 
instance, belonging to our solar system, and 
those comets which at infrequent intervals come 
within the range of our more immediate circle 
of worlds. Let us pass hastily through this 
part of the house not made with hands. There 
is Venus, a star with a beauty all its own, and 
nearly as large as our earth. At its transit it 
has been seen to have a vaporous atmosphere, 
and to be in such a general condition, that, said 
Proctor to a Glasgow audience, though others 
differ from him, "presumably it is inhabited." 
There is Mars with its two moons to our one. 
At its poles are seen white patches, which some- 
times are larger and again are smaller, plainly 
speaking of winter and summer up there, of 
Arctic snow with its advancing and its receding 

[212] 



The Temple Expanding 

line. Mars indeed is declared by one astron- 
omer to be " a miniature of our own earth, and 
in all probability inhabited by such creatures as 
we are familiar with. ' ' This is evidenced, says 
Professor Percival Lowell, by what he calls 
canals, immense artificial constructions that 
because of their geometrical regularity and 
because of the nicety of their articulation at 
the junction points would seem to testify to 
superhuman intelligence and capacity. 

Then there is Jupiter supposed to be still red- 
hot, not having yet cooled down to the degree 
that this earth has, with the latter 's solid out- 
side crust, and with a molten interior breaking 
out here and there in volcanoes. It has been 
suggested that the fiery Jovian globe, still in- 
candescent, may be a sort of sun to its several 
moons, which themselves may be planets, and 
which possibly may be inhabited by beings to 
whom our luminary would appear twenty-five 
times smaller than it does to us, but to whom 
glowing, cloud-enveloped Jupiter would be an 
"amazing object of contemplation, ' ' a "glori- 
ous disc." And it has several moons, only 
four of these having been discovered till in 
1892 a fifth was revealed, and even while one 
of our later astronomies was telling me that 
there were now seven, the Lick Observatory 
quietly announced, in 1914, that the ninth had 
been found. There is also Uranus with its four 
satellites, and Saturn with its eight, and with 
its enchanting rings, an outer and an inner, 

[213] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

and there is mighty Neptune with its one moon. 

The great central orb of our solar system 
must not be forgotten. It outweighs more than 
330,000 earths. It gives forth a heat, which 
according to one computation would be equiva- 
lent to that sent forth from our globe, if upon 
every square yard of its surface there should 
be consumed three tons of coal every second. 
What a conflagration is thus raging constantly 
on yonder ball of fire. The flames in tremen- 
dous sun-storms have been known by astronom- 
ical measurements to shoot up to the prodigious 
height of more than 160,000 miles. 

Around this fiery center, Mercury, the near- 
est planet, revolves once in three months, a 
period that therefore is the length of the Mer- 
curial year. Neptune, the most distant planet, 
is 164 of our years in completing the revolu- 
tion. There are comets, whose orbits are so 
vast, that it takes thousands of our years to 
make the circuit of the sun. The period of the 
comet of 1858, Donati's, is about two thousand 
years. It will not be seen again till there has 
fled a time as long as has elapsed since the 
birth of Christ. "The comet of 1811," says one 
authority, "when it last saw the earth, saw it 
yet dripping with the waters of the flood; the 
comet of 1680, when it last saw the earth, saw 
it without form and void, and prophesying but 
faintly of an Eden and an Adam still three 
thousands years" in the future, and when it 
comes round again, nine thousand years hence, 

[214] 



The Temple Expanding 

we could hope with the gifted author of ' ' Ecce 
Coelum," that it might be to witness "the pre- 
dicted new heavens and new earth in which shall 
dwell righteousness. ' ' 

We take a still wider sweep into the immen- 
sity of nature, when we contemplate "the 
heaven of heavens. " It is inspiring to think of 
our system with its planets and moons revolv- 
ing about the sun, but there are other sun- 
systems. There are what are called in astro- 
nomical language fixed stars. These are 
self-luminous, and so are unlike the planets 
which shine with reflected light. That is, these 
fixed stars are suns like ours, and they revolve 
about each other, as telescopic observations 
demonstrate. They are so far away as to seem 
mere points of light, only twinkling in the 
distance. 

There is the North Star, which has guided 
so many mariners on the great deep, and which 
not long ago assisted so many slaves in escap- 
ing from their southern masters. This is a 
sun from which light, travelling 186,000 miles 
a second, takes seventy years to reach this 
earth, and were it this moment blotted out, we 
would not know it for the three score and ten 
years marking the usual limit of a human life. 
It does not seem so very dazzling because it is 
so distant, but as a matter of fact it is equal 
to one hundred of our suns. There is Arcturus 
blazing away with the brilliancy of more than 
five hundred of our suns. Alcyone, the bright- 

[215] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

est of the Pleiades, has a light as powerful as 
twelve thousand of our solar orb. As another 
has said, our sun is a "mere rush-light and 
glow-worm as compared with many of the huge 
luminaries which pour their glories adown the 
immensity of nature." And how immense 
nature is, we can in a measure conceive, when 
we are informed that the passage of light from 
the Pleiades to us requires seven hundred years 
— so that Alcyone could have been extinguished 
seven centuries since, while we are receiving its 
light as shot forth through space that long ago. 
And Alcyone with its circling suns may be 
wheeling with other Alcyones around a larger 
center still, perhaps 100,000 suns strong. It is 
wheel within wheel far beyond our present abil- 
ity to observe. So far as can be detected, how- 
ever, there is no one vast sun, no center of cen- 
ters, around which the whole universe revolves. 
Our solar system, for instance, has been flying 
straight ahead toward the constellation Lyra 
during all human history, ten miles a second, 
a million miles every day. Whence we started 
thither, and when we shall get there, are un- 
answered conundrums. A reputable astron- 
omer tells us that we probably will not reach 
the vicinity of Vega for half a million years 
or more. 

Such enormous distances can only be meas- 
ured by what is called the astronomical unit, 
a light-year, which is the distance that light 
travels in a year. When it flashes along 186,- 

[216] 



The Temple Expanding 

000 miles every second, more than seven times 
around the earth between two ticks of a watch, 
we can appreciate how far it will go in a year, 
and that is what gives the standard of meas- 
urement. Our authorities inform us that the 
most remote stars in the stellar system are ten 
or even twenty thousand light-years distant. 
The nearest star to us is Alpha Centauri, and 
that it is more than 275,000 times as distant as 
our orb, which itself is more than ninety mil- 
lion miles away, and which we could not reach 
on the fastest express train running a mile a 
minute day and night under 175 of our years. 
When we reflect that there may be in bound- 
less space other sidereal systems as yet undis- 
covered and perhaps forever undiscoverable by 
mortal man, the imagination is fairly stag- 
gered, accustomed though it is to flights extend- 
ing to absolutely bewildering distances. 

Confining ourselves to what can be seen, what 
are some of the facts? The telescope is con- 
tinually making new revelations. It resolves 
the Milky Way and other nebulae into myriads 
of flashing worlds. Where one star appears to 
the naked eye, let thousands of dazzling orbs 
leap into sight, and some conception is gotten 
of how thickly strewn space is with stars. "In 
one region,' ' is the declaration, "they seem to 
form sprays of stars like diamonds sprinkled 
over fern leaves ; elsewhere they lie in streams 
and rows, in coronets and loops and festoons. ' ' 

Think again of the variegated colors, diverse 

[217] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

as the tints of the rainbow. Polaris gives its 
planets a yellow light, while the rays from Cas- 
tor are green, and the constellation of the Cross 
and Altar bathes every thing in a radiance that 
is blood-red. Capella is yellowish, Arcturus 
reddish, and Vega bluish. Some are green, 
and others are red as garnets and rubies. Nay 
more, the magnifying lens reveals to us the 
fact, that the "suns of the same system often 
have different colors. ' ' How picturesque would 
be a planet upon which suns yellow, green and 
red, all shone. To some intelligences in the 
universe, a blue sun may be coming up in the 
east, while an orange sun hastens toward the 
west. We are informed of one stellar group 
whose variously colored suns are "so closely 
thronged together as to appear in a powerful 
telescope like a superb bouquet, or a piece of 
fancy jewelry." Could we have the standpoint 
of God, at the last center of all centers, if such 
there be, we would see all about us blazing 
constellations of red, and orange, and yellow, 
and green, and blue, and indigo, and violet, — 
revolving rainbows of glory. Such is "the 
heaven of heavens, ' ' which cannot contain God. 
Not only is space with these countless and 
radiant worlds boundless, but time also is limit- 
less. There are two eternities which we need 
to couple to get any adequate conception of 
the Infinite Creator, and of the house whose 
architect he is, and whose builder and maker 
he is. Let us endeavor to measure eternity 

[218 J 



The Temple Expanding 

by astronomical cycles. Professor Dolbear of 
Tufts College once said, that light though flying 
like a flash through the universe would require 
more than 800,000 years to reach us from the 
most remote sun known to exist. Marvelous 
is the statement of the astronomer Proctor, 
who wrote, ' ' Some of the fainter stars revealed 
by the great Rosse telescope lie at a distance 
so enormous that their light has taken more 
than 100,000 years in reaching us," while he 
added, that "millions of years" probably would 
be required for the passage to us of light from 
some worlds which have not yet been revealed. 
Now take for substance an illustration heard 
in my early life. Its details have escaped me, 
but we can readily construct something similar. 
Suppose that a bird took a grain of sand from 
this earth, and flew away at the rate of 186,000 
miles a second. In Dolbear 's 800,000 years to 
the most distant orb now discernible, or in 
Proctor's millions of years to some more dis- 
tant star not yet discovered, it reaches a starry 
world in the outermost limits of boundless 
space, and there leaves what it had carried so 
long in its beak. Millions of years, to use the 
larger figure, are required for its return flight 
to this globe. It takes another solitary sand, 
and flies away, away, away, and deposits it in 
the same place. It continues this, till the con- 
tinent of Africa is removed, till two continents 
are gone, till all of them and the isles of the 
sea have vanished, till this entire terrestrial 

[219] 



Biblical Nature Studies 

ball has been carried away grain by grain. 
How long has the bird been in accomplishing 
its task? Billions and trillions and quadrillions 
of years ; and yet we are no nearer having the 
measure of eternity than when we began. 

Considering thus the boundlessness of both 
space and time, getting just a glimpse of the 
temple expanding round us to infinity, we can 
well adopt the language of Walt Whitman at 
his best. In his somewhat disjointed and yet 
in a very impressive way he wrote these lines : 

' ' I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems, 
And all I can see multiplied as high as I can cipher edge but 

the rim of the farther systems. 
Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding, 
Onward and outward and forever outward. 

' l My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels, 
He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit, 
And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside 
them. 

' ' There is no stoppage and never can be stoppage. 



"A few quadrillions of eras, a few octillions of cubic leagues, 

do not hazard the span or make it impatient. 
They are but parts, any thing is but a part. 

' l See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that, 
Count ever so much, there is limitless time around that. 

' ' My rendezvous is appointed, it is certain, 
The Lord will be there and wait till I come on perfect terms, 
The great Camerado, the lover true for whom I pine will be 
there. ' ' 



[220] 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

THE BIBLE VERIFIED 

Pages 132. Price $1.00 

Four Editions, and Translations into Spanish 
and Japanese. 

President J. G. K. McClure, D.D., McCormicJc Theological 

Seminary : 

I have never found a book so suitable for size and contents 
to place in the hands of the ordinary inquirer who desires to 
know the preeminent value of the Bible in the literatures of 
the world as "The Bible Verified. " 
Bishop J. P. Newman, D.I)., LL.D. : 

It is a timely book. The common people will read it gladly. 
Scholars will find mental recreation therein. * * * * Would 
that some wealthy saint would put ' ' The Bible Verified ' ' in 
the hand of every minister and Sunday-school superintendent 
in the land. 
Rev. S. F. Smith, D.D., Author of "America:" 

The successive chapters unfold with an ever renewed inter- 
est. The illustrations from history are luminous and striking. 
**** ****** j .^jsk {i might be used as a classic. 
Prof. A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D., Oxford University, England: 

It is written at once interestingly and forcibly. I see that 
you have consulted the latest and best authorities. 



THE TREND OF THE CENTURIES 
Pages 419. $1.00 net, postpaid 

Prof. George P. Fisher, D.D., LL.D., Yale University : 

It shows how extensive and intelligent has been your survey 
of the past, how careful and broad have been your researches, 
and in what a scholarly and catholic spirit you have judged 
of historical events and persons. It is an able and suggestive 
review of the course of history. 



The Presbyterian Journal, Philadelphia: 

Those who have read ' ' The Bible Verified, ' ' a book from the 
pen of the same author, will readily understand the character 
of the work before us. There is this difference, however, ' ' The 
Trend of the Centuries" is the stronger of the two. * * * A 
more powerful argument for the actual participation of God 
in human affairs we do not know. 
The American Journal of Theology, Chicago University : 

The matter is put in a fresh and fascinating way. The 
great epochs of history are so skilfully and vividly portrayed, 
that the reader becomes an interested and delighted spectator 
of the great and inspiring acts of God 's providence. 
The Expository Times, Edinburgh, Scotland: 

It is a book to be read by the multitude. It bristles with 
literary references, but they are all intelligible. 

THE EASTER HOPE 

Pages 132. Price $1.00 
Two Editions 

j!he Baptist Commonwealth, Philadelphia: 

The author's arguments are clear, cogent and convincing. 
* * * We do not see how this book can fail to be of service 
to his fellow preachers, and to Christians generally. 
Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati: 

This is a strikingly forceful presentation of the great argu- 
ments for the immortal life. 

The Pacific Churchman, San Francisco: 

There is a reasoned argument for the resurrection worked 
out with the skill of a practiced and eloquent writer. 
Ex-Pres. Timothy JDwight, D.D., LL.D., Tale University : 

I read it twice with great interest. * * * * You have made 
a very able and helpful volume. 

Prof. Edward L. Curtis, D.D., in Yale Divinity Quarterly : 

Dr. Archibald writes with great clearness and simplicity of 
style and abundant use of happy quotation, especially of 
poetry. There is not a dull page in the book. 

Eev. Charles L. Morgan, D.D., First Church, Elgin, III.: 

I wish to congratulate you on the most charming and at 
the same time convincing assembling of the facts and argu- 
ments that I have ever read. * * * * I truly believe the book 
will be a classic on this great theme. 
Bev. A. Z. Conrad, D.D., Parle Street Church, Boston: 

I read it from cover to cover. * * * * It is stimulative, 
suggestive, inspiring. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16086 
(724)779-2111! 



